After giving up the customary early goal the LA Galaxy stormed back in style Sunday night at Dignity Health Sports Park, blowing out Sporting Kansas City by a 7-2 scoreline. With the win Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s side climb up to fifth in the Western Conference playoff race,

The first half hour was a depressingly familiar affair for the LA Galaxy. After solidly pressing the Sporting Kansas City for the opening half hour, a moment of lackadaisical defending threw everything away when Felipe Gutierrez found time and space inside the box to beat David Bingham with ease.

The Galaxy were deflated but an unlucky deflection from Matt Besler inside the area gave LA the lifeline they needed, and although Tim Melia dove low to make a brilliant stop the deflection went right to Ibra who passed into the net.

The second half was an explosion of goals for LA. Joe Corona got things going with a header of a looping cross and four minutes later Rolf Feltscher’s precise cross skidded to the big Swede who managed to corral the ball before beating Melia with a left footed finish.

Uriel Antuna got on the end of a Cristian Pavon shot to add to the scoreline before a pair of Sebastian Lletget headers made things worse for SKC. Finally Zlatan completed his hat trick and Guitterez bagged his own brace to finish a wild one for LA.