Zlatan Ibrahimovic lived up to his "big game" reputation by scoring a hat-trick for LA Galaxy in a 3-2 Major League Soccer win over Los Angeles rivals LAFC.
The 37-year-old Swedish striker showed he is still capable of astounding feats by dominating the smaller LAFC defence and scoring when it counted for his second career MLS hat trick.
"When you play against a rival like that, in a full stadium, I get pumped. I get adrenaline. This is considered to be the biggest game in the league and I show up in the biggest games," said Ibrahimovic.
Ibrahimovic, who has a flair for the dramatic since joining the MLS in 2018, boasted prior to Friday's game that he is "by far" the best player in the league despite Carlos Vela's superior stats.
The pre-game hype was about the marquee matchup between Galaxy's Ibrahimovic and LAFC's Vela. The duo scored all five goals, but it was the Swede who delivered in the key moments, scoring in the eighth, 56th and 70th minutes.
Galaxy depend almost entirely on Ibrahimovic in attack and he thanked them with another hat-trick performance against the top ranked team in the league.
"I am in playoff mode every day," said Ibrahimovic.
Major. League. Zlatan.
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) July 20, 2019
This hat trick from @Ibra_official 🔥👀 pic.twitter.com/9Ch4XtamvM
Vela scored his league leading 20th and 21st goals in the fourth and 97th minutes for LAFC, who were hoping to stake their claim to North American football supremacy with a win on Friday. Vela now has five more goals than Ibrahimovic, who is in second place.
