Justin Haak's First Galaxy Goal Completes LA Comeback From 2-0 Down Against Colorado Rapids

For 45 minutes, the Colorado Rapids made the LA Galaxy look like a team that had wandered into the wrong movie. Then Greg Vanney rewrote the script at halftime, and Carson got a completely different ending.

Trailing 2-0 at the break, the Galaxy scored three times in a 21-minute burst after halftime, and Justin Haak's 74th-minute header off a Robert Taylor corner sealed a 3-2 win on Saturday night at Dignity Health Sports Park. It was Haak's first goal for the club and, according to the Galaxy, the first time all season LA had won back-to-back matches.

Colorado's Counterattack Clinic

The Rapids needed four minutes to strike first. Jackson Travis won the ball and found Josh Atencio in midfield, Atencio slid a pass into the path of Donavan Phillip, and Phillip finished with his left foot into the top right corner. Per the Rapids, it was Phillip's second straight match with a goal after he scored his first in MLS against the Seattle Sounders the previous weekend.

Colorado kept coming on the break. Phillip forced JT Marcinkowski into saves in the 19th and 21st minutes, and the Galaxy's best answer was an Erik Thommy strike from distance that Nico Hansen pushed away in the 11th and a João Klauss header that drifted wide in the 36th. In the 39th minute, Rob Holding lofted a ball over the LA back line, Paxten Aaronson fought through a defender, and his right-footed finish went into the bottom left corner. The club said it was Aaronson's sixth goal of the season and his fifth goal contribution in his last four MLS appearances.

At halftime, the Rapids had more of the ball, two goals and every reason to feel comfortable. That lasted about eight minutes.

The Press Flips the Script

Vanney shifted his side into more of a 4-3-3 at the break and told his players to step to their direct opponents and press. It worked almost immediately. In the 53rd minute, Pablo Ruiz swung in a free kick, Haak flicked it on, and with Klauss lurking, Reggie Cannon turned the ball into his own net. VAR confirmed the goal.

Marco Reus came on for Calegari in the 61st minute and gave the Galaxy a playmaker; Thommy's shot off his pass a minute later forced another Hansen save. Then, in the 66th minute, Klauss pounced. The Galaxy said he intercepted a pass from the Colorado goalkeeper before finishing from close range, and his left-footed shot went straight through the middle to make it 2-2.

Eight minutes later, Taylor whipped in a corner and Haak headed it in from point-blank range. Hansen needed treatment right after but stayed on, and he kept the Rapids alive with two more saves in the 88th minute, first from Thommy and then from substitute Kyogo Furuhashi, who had replaced the injured Klauss.

Colorado had one last chance. After three corners in the final minutes of eight added on, Phillip met a Morgan Whittaker delivery from very close range and sent it over the bar. Final whistle. Galaxy fans exhale.

Klauss, Haak and the Back-to-Back

Klauss made his first start since leaving early with an injury on April 18, per the Galaxy, and he has now scored in back-to-back matches since returning on Sept. 12, both of them equalizers in comeback wins. He took four shots before an injury forced him off in the 84th minute.

Haak had a hand, or rather a head, in two goals: the flick that created the own goal and the winner itself. The center back also had plenty of praise for the man behind him. "I tell him almost every day I think he's been our best player this year," Haak said of Marcinkowski.

Marcinkowski, for the record, was having none of it. "I think if I thought I was the best player, I would be probably delusional," he said.

Thommy was the Galaxy's most dangerous outlet, with four shots, three on target and six fouls drawn, more than anyone on the field. Sergi Roberto, back after missing the previous match through injury, completed 41 passes at 95.3 percent, per the club. For Colorado, Phillip finished with five shots, three on target, and a goal, while Hansen made five saves in a losing effort.

The Halftime Switch

The turning point happened in the locker room. The Rapids were controlling the game with the ball and punishing LA on the counter, and Vanney's adjustment flipped that dynamic.

"It's a game won off of the commitment and trusting each other," Vanney said. "It wasn't necessarily a game in the category of beautiful soccer. It was a game in commitment and disruption and create your own luck through hard work and through the press."

Colorado still finished with 60.4 percent of the possession, but the Galaxy turned their turnovers into chances, and their chances into goals.

Numbers From a Wild Night

• Possession: Colorado 60.4 percent, LA 39.6 percent.
• Shots: LA 15, Colorado 9. On target: LA 7, Colorado 4.
• Saves: Nico Hansen 5, JT Marcinkowski 2.
• Passing: Colorado completed 463 of 529 passes; LA completed 291 of 347.
• Discipline: Colorado committed 20 fouls and took three yellow cards; LA committed 13 fouls with one yellow.

Dead Even in the West

The Galaxy improved to 9-9-10 with 36 points, pulling level with Colorado, which fell to 11-3-13 with 36 points. The Rapids' recap listed Colorado seventh in the West and LA eighth after the result. LA's 10 points in September, per the club, are its best single-month haul of the season, and this win followed a 3-2 comeback at Minnesota United FC on Sept. 19.

Haak refused to get carried away. "This is just three more points at the end of the day, and we still have work to do to qualify for the playoffs and then keep going from there," he said.

The Rapids, who beat the Galaxy 4-1 in Colorado in March, are now winless in two after a 3-3 draw with Seattle. They host the San Jose Earthquakes on Oct. 10 after the international break, while the Galaxy visit St. Louis CITY SC on Oct. 11.

Make Your Own Luck

This was a director's cut of a match: same cast, completely different second act. Vanney, for his part, would like the credit to go to the work, not the fortune.

"I'm not a big believer in luck," he said. Two straight comebacks suggest he might be onto something.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes and match notes as reported by the LA Galaxy (lagalaxy.com) and the Colorado Rapids (coloradorapids.com).