Growing up in Orange County, Christian Ramirez remembers when the closest thing Southern California had to a soccer derby was a Galaxy-Chivas USA match. That rivalry wasn’t so much passionate as it was pathetic, though, with the Galaxy losing just four of 31 games to their StubHub Center roommates.
Now Ramirez is back in Southern California, traded from Minnesota United to the Los Angeles Football Club three weeks ago for as much as $1 million in allocation money. And the timing couldn’t have been better since Ramirez’s first road game with his new team will come Friday when LAFC heads down the freeway to meet the Galaxy for the third time in a series that is already one of most intense in MLS.