It was Joseph Painstil’s night to shine on Saturday.
The LA Galaxy winger from Ghana notched a first-half hat trick to lead the struggling squad to a win over visiting Sporting KC, a team that hasn’t had much success either and finds itself second-to-last in the Western Conference standings.
Paintsil’s first goal came in the fourth minute, when he received a beautiful touch inside and curved the ball past Kansas City goalie John Pulskamp.
The second goal arrived in the 25th minute when Paintsil scored on an unassisted put-back goal to extend the Galaxy’s lead to two.
Three minutes later, the visitors made the match interesting after notching their first and only goal of the game from Serbian striker Dejan Joveljić.
Paintsil capped off his hat trick in the 43rd minute after finding a wide-open lane on the left side of the goal and gave the Galaxy a 3-1 lead with a calm one-touch finish.
After Paintsil had a promising opportunity in the 52nd minute that sailed wide of the net, the Galaxy found their first and only goal of the second half eight minutes later.
Uruguayan midfielder Diego Fagúndez received a pass down the middle and snuck the ball past Pulskamp to give the Galaxy a three-goal edge in the 60th minute. This was Fagúndez’ 78th goal of his MLS career, leaving him two goals away from reaching the MLS 80/80 club.
The Galaxy controlled possession for most of the second half, and Kansas City struggled to find any sort of rhythm. Tempers flared in the 83rd minute when Kansas City winger Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov received a red card after running into Galaxy defender Emiro Garces.
The Galaxy is set to host Mexican club Toluca on Thursday to crown the 2025 Campeones Cup champion.