Denis Bouanga scored his first two goals of the season and LAFC continued their perfect start by pulling away to a 4-0 victory over the visiting New England Revolution on Sunday night.
Bouanga has now scored five times in the space of four days after he had a hat trick on Thursday night in LAFC’s 3-0 victory at Costa Rica’s LD Alajuelense in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League.
He also became the second player to score a penalty for LAFC (2-0-0, 6 points) in MLS play this season, since Carlos Vela was one of four starters from Thursday who were not in Sunday’s starting lineup.
Timothy Tillman and Stipe Biuk also scored their first career MLS goals as two of the beneficiaries of manager Steve Cherundolo’s decision to rest some regulars.
Bouanga also assisted Biuk’s very late strike, and also struck the woodwork with a second-half free kick to complete an exceptional night.
Djordje Petrovic made eight saves for New England (2-1-0, 6 points), which started the match promisingly but was the second-best team once Bouanga converted his penalty in the 14th minute.
Petrovic nearly kept Biuk’s very late effort out, but Biuk’s finish off Bouanga’s cross had enough momentum to take the ball — and Petrovic — over the line.
Gustavo Bou made his season debut for the Revs, but 2021 MLS MVP Carles Gil was a surprise omission from the starting lineup. Gil came on as a second-half substitute, then had to exit the match before full-time with an apparent injury.
Tillman made the first key play of the match when he drew a penalty on a cutback inside the box that induced Bou into a somewhat clumsy foul.
Referee Allen Chapman pointed to the spot to relatively few protests from New England players. And Bouanga smashed his penalty up the middle as Petrovic guessed in the wrong direction.
It was 2-0 in 67th minute through Bouanga again, this time when he ran onto Ryan Hollingshead’s ball over the top, timed his run to remain onside and finished beyond a stranded Petrovic. That started a late onslaught from the home side.
–Field Level Media
