It’s been a wild 24 hours for LAFC’s Denis Bouanga.
Back on Thursday, Buoanga was in Gabon, playing against the Sudan in Gabon’s quest to qualify for the next January’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament. Bouanga played all 90 minutes in Gabon’s 1-0 victory that put them in a tie for second place with Libya with three matches to go.
Shortly after, Bouanga was on his way back to Los Angeles in a trip that saw him have to go through Istanbul to catch a connecting flight. Bouanga did not arrive in Los Angeles unto around 5:30 pm on Saturday and did not get to BMO Stadium until an hour later, as the team was about to take the field for warmups. Bouanga however felt good enough that head coach Steve Cherundolo put him amongst the 18 to start on the bench. Bouanga made the selection worthwhile, as he subbed in the 65th minute and made his impact felt, scoring the go-ahead goal late in the second half to earn the three points for LAFC following its 2-1 win.
“Slept 10 hours on a 13-hour flight coming here, so everything went super well,” Bouanga said.
The moment came to Bouanga in the 84th minute. Carlos Vela sent a corner kick into the penalty area, Bouanga chased down the ball and managed to keep it in the penalty area, Bouanga then sent a ball towards goal that somehow managed to sneak past keeper Jimmy Maurer from a very tight angle across the goal line at the far post to give LAFC a lead it never relinquished.
“I felt really good right away as soon as I stepped into the building to see the teammates and the supporters and the whole atmosphere of the game day felt really good right away,” Bouanga said. “Obviously, when I stepped in, I did what he had to do to find that goal that came in the right moment for the team. I am super happy to have that moment for us that makes the goal winning game today.”
FC Dallas must have felt like there were facing two opponents on Saturday night; LAFC and Video Review. LAFC took the lead just three minutes in, as Kwadao Opoku pounced on a poor goal kick by Maurer, Alan Velasco tried to retain possession for Dallas, but Timothy Tillman got the ball back for LAFC inside the penalty area, then slotted a shot past Maurer far post to give LAFC the lead.
Then Video Review took over. FC Dallas thought they had tied the game in the 18th minute, as Edwin Cerillo fired a volley outside the box through traffic and past keeper John McCarthy into the back net. However referee Lukasz Szpala soon got the call to take a second look, and it was discovered that the ball went towards Jader Obrian, who was in an offside position, thus the goal was called back.
Video Review became a factor in two more instances, both of them bad for Dallas. The second time came in the 23rd minute, as Szpala used VAR to determine that Ema Twumasi’s forearm to the head of Sergi Palencia was deemed harsh enough to warrant a straight red card, forcing Dallas to play a man down the rest of the match.
Undeterred, Dallas came back to equalize in the 73rd minute. Jesus Jimenez sent a long free kick into the penalty area, the ball took a deflection, former LAFC defender Sebastian Ibeagha played a ball into the six-yard box and Knosi Tafari jumped and volleyed a shot past McCarthy into the near post to tie the match. However, just as FC Dallas had worked to level matters, Video Review threatened to undo its efforts in the 78th minute, as Vela while chasing down a loose ball inside the penalty area made contact with Tsiki Ntsabeleng and went to ground. Szpala however got a third call for VAR to determine whether or not the contact was harsh enough to warrant a foul and thus give LAFC the penalty, and that was the conclusion that was reached, as Szpala awarded LAFC the penalty. Vela however sent the penalty off the crossbar.
