Four minutes was all it took for LAFC to take over New York City FC’s second half. Four minutes of being held hostage in its own half. Four minutes of a cycle of a failed string of passes that LAFC repeatedly cut out before the ball crossed the 50-yard line. Four minutes that ended with a through ball to Mark-Anthony Kaye, catching NYCFC’s back line flat-footed before Kaye’s deflected low cross found Corey Baird for the tap-in finish to make it 1-0 56 minutes in.
10 minutes after Baird’s opener, the momentum shifted. Head coach Ronny Deila, abandoned the reliable 3-5-2 formation and made four substitutions at once for the first time this season, which featured the return of Anton Tinnerholm and the debut of Brazilian starlet Talles Magno.