That’s more like it for LAFC.
Having dominated MLS for the better part of six months, LAFC hit a rough patch over the last two weeks, and a Supporters Shield title that appeared to be a lock for LAFC has now turned to a battle royale that figures to stretch all the way to the end of the season.
However, on Sunday night, playing at home for the first time since August 16, LAFC sent a reminder the rest of the league that they are still the team to beat. Real Salt Lake was the first team that got that reminder on Sunday night, as second half goals from Ryan Hollingshead and Cristian Arango enabled to break a three-match losing streak with a 2-0 win over Salt Lake at Banc of California Stadium.
“We are happy to get three points again, that winning feeling back at LAFC,” head coach Steve Cheruldolo said. “It’s very important to us to make it a habit. I think the guys had a good performance tonight (and) a good response to a few losses.”
After a frustrating first 45 minutes where LAFC did everything but put the ball in the back net, LAFC finally did just that in the second half. Diego Palacios sent a left-footed cross into the penalty area, LAFC’s Cristian Arango, RSL’s Marcelo Silva and RSL keeper Zack MacMath all jumped for the ball and all three players collided, with Silva and MacMath falling to the ground, the ball was loose inside the box and Hollingshead took advantage, as he one-timed a point-blank shot into the open net to finally give LAFC the breakthrough. LAFC then doubled the advantage in the 68th minute, as Vela received a ball from Jose Cifuentes, then played Arango past the RSL back line, Arango faked a shot that faked MacMath to the ground and Arango buried the shot into the unguarded net to give LAFC the two-goal cushion that it rode the rest of the night.
“We put a lot of pieces together and showed a lot of maturity and not rushing the result,” said Hollingshead. “We stayed compact and kept our game plan and went into half time 0-0 while still keeping what we wanted to do and not getting too stretched.”
It wasn’t so much of a must-win on Sunday night for LAFC as it was more like a sense of urgency. Having built comfortable leads in both the Western Conference and Supporters Shield races, both looked to be absolute locks for LAFC in mid-August. Reality however set in for LAFC, first with a loss in Northern California to the San Jose Earthquakes, which was then followed by a rough trip through the lone star state, as LAFC lost to Austin FC and the Houston Dynamo in a span of four days. The losing streak had allowed the Philadelphia Union to overtake LAFC in the Supporters Shield race, and even its lead in the West is a little tenuous, as Austin sits nine points back with a little over a month to go in the regular season.
“We went on a little three-week soul-searching adventure and we came out, I hope, long term better for it and I do truly believe that,” Cherundolo said. “It was a learning process, but we found the key points to take and to improve on and we applied them all tonight.”
Sunday’s match also saw the debut of the team’s latest Designated Player signing, Denis Bouanga. The Gabonese winger, who was signed using the team’s open DP spot that had been vacated by Diego Rossi’s departure to Turkey’s Fenerbache, showed the LAFC fans why the team chose him to fill that DP spot, as he created numerous chances for LAFC and also got himself in position to score goals many times in the half. Bouanga, who scored 26 goals in 97 appearances for St. Etienne, compared playing for LAFC to playing for a more prominent club in France.
“I joined the PSG of MLS,” Bouanga said, referring to Paris-Saint Germain, one of the richest and best clubs in Europe, let alone France.
LAFC will now look to further reassert themselves next Saturday night, as they travel back to Texas, this time to face FC Dallas.
