LA Galaxy player Efrain Alvarez emerged on Wednesday night as one of the best young talents in Major League Soccer. The 19-year-old home-grown player scored a stunning match-winning goal in the 93rd minute and led the 2-1 triumph over the Vancouver Whitecaps to seal the three points.
The player’s efforts were sublime and only took one touch to settle down before he shaved the ball past goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau and into the back of the net. Efrain Alvarez interrupted the early equalizer of Janio Bikel, at the same time as he distinguished himself as the next great talent.
After the match, Chicharito Hernandez jumped forward from LA Galaxy on the opportunity to praise his young teammate.
“It’s the talent and quality that Efrain has,” Chicharito told Spectrum SportsNet’s Nikki Kay. “That’s why I’m the first to expect a lot from him because he’s a diamond. He has to improve a lot, he has to learn.
“He is very young, but I always say he is a national team player. We have to expect [a] the national team player’s performance as today when he entered the pitch or when he sometimes starts. ”
GOLAZO ON DEATH! @ efrain_alvarez1 puts us forward late! pic.twitter.com/hcYwpFUrz0
– LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) June 24, 2021
Efrain has scored two goals and five assists in 38 games for Galaxy, but his teammates can expect more. As a home grown player, Alvarez made his senior debut in 2019, playing 518 minutes for the MLS side and giving three assists. Progressively, the player has improved enormously, which has led Chicharito to talk about Alvarez’s work ethic and praise the player’s potential.
“That’s what all LA Galaxy clubs and families expect from him,” Hernandez added after Alvarez’s stunning strike. “It’s like putting in all the effort, putting in all the talent – and then you can sometimes play good games, you can play bad games, it’s part of [being] a pro. But you have to at least play that [the] national team player he is, so just today is a reminder to him and to all of us of the talent he has. ”
