Carlos Vela scored a goal in the 53rd minute and Los Angeles FC was able to salvage a 3-3 tie against the visiting Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday night -- although the club remains winless in two seasons against its crosstown rival.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored two first-half goals for the Galaxy (13-11-3, 42 points), who moved into a fourth-place tie in the Western Conference with Minnesota United FC.

Western Conference-leader LAFC (19-3-5, 62 points), which also has the best record in MLS, is now 0-2-3 in El Trafico (the nickname given to the LAFC-Galaxy series).

LAFC's hopes of rallying from two goals down for the victory took a blow when Vela, a favorite for MLS MVP, had to exit in the 61st minute with a right hamstring injury.

Ibrahimovic continued to be nothing but trouble for LAFC, netting a first-half brace to give him eight of the Galaxy's 13 goals in the five meetings. He scored barely 100 seconds into the game when he took a pass from Cristian Pavon and delivered into the bottom left of the LAFC goal with his left foot.

LAFC's Latif Blessing also scored a pair of first-half goals, including his second one minute into first-half stoppage time when he cleaned up a loose ball in front of the Galaxy goal to make it 3-2. His first came in the 12th minute to tie the score 1-1.

Ibrahimovic came right back three minutes later to give the Galaxy a 2-1 advantage when he took a long pass from Favio Alvarez, moved past charging goalkeeper Tyler Miller and fired another left-footed shot for his 22nd of the season.

Pavon scored his first goal with the Galaxy in his fourth game with the club, dribbling through LAFC defender Walker Zimmerman and scoring into the bottom left corner of the goal past a diving Miller. Pavon's goal, to give the Galaxy a 3-1 lead, came 1:09 after Ibrahimovic scored.

Vela's league-leading 27th of the season came off a pass from Mark-Anthony Kaye to the right side of goal, scoring past sliding goalkeeper David Bingham.