Goals from Luis Suarez and Sergi Roberto were enough for Spanish giants Barcelona to defeat the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1 in the International Champions Cup at a jam-packed Rose Bowl on Tuesday night.
The win sees Barcelona open the International Champions Cup with three points and was also the highest attended club soccer game featuring an MLS team with an announced attendance of 93,226. The previous record was held when both teams met each other at the Rose Bowl in 2009.
Without star forwards Lionel Messi or Neymar in the lineup against the Los Angeles Galaxy, some wondered if Barcelona would still have enough firepower to overthrow an in-form Galaxy side.
Their worries were put to rest on the stroke of halftime when Luis Suarez capitalized off a missed clearance by Leonardo and struck home to give Barcelona a lead that it wouldn't relinquish for the rest of the game in the first half.
The second goal came from a turnover in the Galaxy's defensive third and, after another bad clearance, the ball rolled to Sergi Roberto -- standing alone in the middle of the box -- who buried his shot to double the lead. This punctuated the fact that Barcelona came out of halftime looking even better than it did in the first half, with multiple shots coming in the first few minutes.
The Galaxy finally found the back of the net in the 90th minute but the late goal by Tommy Meyer would matter only as a consolation.
The match ended 2-1 in favour of European champions Barcelona.
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