Former Red Star Belgrade striker Dejan Joveljić scored in the final against New York Red Bulls, finishing the playoffs as the top scorer and thus bringing Los Angeles Galaxy their first title after a 10-year wait. Joveljić has been the team’s best player and a fan favorite throughout the season.
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He once cheered on Robbie Keane, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Javier Hernandez, this Saturday he celebrates – Dejan Joveljić!
Because he may not boast a career like the aforementioned world-renowned strikers, but Galaxy fans don’t care about that, he brought them what they’ve been waiting for a full decade! And so, from tonight, the Serbian striker will certainly have a special place in the hearts of the fans of the team from the City of Angels, perhaps even more special than those who bought Ibra and Chicharito with their goals.
None of those goals – and they scored a combined 92 – had the weight of these six Joveljić’s in the last month, enough to bring LA Galaxy the state championship title, the first in a full ten years. In the league part of the season, the former Red Star Belgrade striker was far from the most efficient, but when the playoffs came, he became – deadly. Two pieces in the round of 16 against Colorado, the same in the quarterfinals against Minnesota, decisive in the semi-finals last week in a clash with Seattle, and then another one in the grand final against New York Red Bulls – 2:1 (2:1).
The most trophy-laden American club in recent years has had many disappointing seasons, experienced many painful, premature eliminations waiting for someone capable of taking them to the throne as Robbie Keane did at the beginning of the last decade. Names changed, there were both loud and fairly unknown ones, and none of them were as influential as the Irish international – he scored in the last two finals that Galaxy played – until Joveljić appeared.
Joveljic's goal got this place LOUD.
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) December 7, 2024
And that Robbie Keane celebration. 👌@LAGalaxy // #MLSCup pres. by Audi pic.twitter.com/CBPshj1gbj
Although Joveljić’s start was not promising either, let us remind you that during the previous season he often ‘warmed the bench’ for the veteran Billy Sharp, but when the English striker decided to return to his homeland (via the second division team Hull he eventually reached the fourth division team Doncaster), space opened up for the Serb, who – exploded.
During the league part, he scored 15 goals, in the playoffs he fired another six precise, deadly shots, finishing the most efficient season of his career in the best possible way – with a title for which he is most responsible. And after everything he showed in the past year, considering that he is in his best playing years (he celebrated his 25th birthday in August), we can’t help but wonder if winter might be the ideal time to return to Europe?
New York reached the final thanks primarily to a steel defense. In three playoff games, they kept a clean sheet, only conceding two goals against Columbus, and then in the final they were forced to pull the ball out of the net twice by the 13th minute! The Red Bulls fans hadn’t even warmed up their hands properly, and the Galaxy players had already nailed them to their seats. Joseph Paintsil, in the ninth minute, on a masterful pass from Gaston Brugman, started the rival, and then Dejan Joveljić finished him off like that. The Serbian representative received the ball about 35 meters from the opponent’s goal, rushed towards his penalty area and just when it seemed there was no way, that the guards had closed the passage, he fell, as in a small football game, with the tip of his boot pushed the ball along the ground into the far corner.
With that goal, Joveljić became only the fifth player in MLS history to score six or more goals in one playoff season, or the first since Robbie Keane in 2012, and he also celebrated entering the select company in the style of the legendary Irishman before bowing to Ricky Pucha, an injured teammate who watched the final from the stands, who in the semi-finals played the last half hour with a partially damaged knee ligament. And so, injured, he set up the winning goal for Joveljić.
New York managed to reduce the deficit before the end, to halve it through Sean Nealis, to punish the Galaxy’s clumsy reaction to a corner and return to life, but despite the fact that they had more than an hour left, they failed to at least postpone the celebration of the team from Los Angeles. Moreover, Galaxy was closer to the third goal, and it almost came in the middle of the second half when Miki Yamane hit the post.
In addition to Joveljić, the title was also won by Novak Mićović, the former Čukarički goalkeeper who, alongside John McCarthy, rarely defended and so remained on the bench as a reserve tonight.
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Izvor: Mozzartsport Foto: AFP