Photo Courtesy of LAFC.
Danny Musovski, right, pointed LAFC to three points with his winning goal on Wednesday night.
It looks like LAFC is starting to find its stride at just the right time.
Hovering around the middle of the Western Conference standings for most of the season, LAFC is now clearly playing with a sense of urgency with two months left in the season. LAFC got goals from Cristian Arango and Danny Musovski, and stretched its winning streak to three games and its undefeated streak to four games courtesy of a 2-0 win over Austin FC at Q2 Stadium.
“Strong team win, good mentality,” said LAFC head coach Bob Bradley. “Austin is a team that is playing for everything, they’re still pushing everything hard, and I thought our group handled that well.”
It wasn’t just the three points collected on Wednesday night that were crucial for LAFC. Wednesday’s win combined with Minnesota’s 4-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City moved them into the top seven in the Western Conference. LAFC is tied on points for the sixth spot with Real Salt Lake, who earned a wild 4-3 road win over the San Jose Earthquakes, and RSL holds the sixth spot based on goal differential.
“From the start of the game, we came out with good energy,” Musovski said. “We knew it was going to be a tough environment in Austin because they have crazy fans in the stadium, it feels like they’re on top of you, but everyone responded well.”
Tied at a goal apiece heading into the final stretch of the match, LAFC managed to push across a go-ahead goal in the 81st minute. Jose Cifuentes led an LAFC break, Cifuentes thenn sprung Musovski into the penalty area with a through ball that split two Austin defenders, Musovski took a touch, then fired the shot past keeper Brad Stuver far post to regain the lead for LAFC, a lead they eventually held on for the win.
“I just saw myself in the middle of the field,” Musovski said of the events leading up to the goal. “I saw a big open lane, and I saw Cifu had the ball, so I just put my head down and run, and was hoping Cifu would play the ball in front of me, and he played a great ball.”
Austin thought they had a goal just three minutes in, but video review took that away. It started when Alexander Ring sent a long ball that was chased down by Cecilio Dominguez, who bided his time before he played Sebastian Driussi into the penalty area, and Driussi sent the shot between the legs of keeper Tomas Romero and into the back net. However, referee Timothy Ford, and they apparently ruled that Dominguez was offside when Ring sent his long ball forward, and thus Driussi’s goal was disallowed.
The game remained scoreless throughout the entire first half, but LAFC got another break in the 55th minute. Kim-Moon Hwan played a cross inside the penalty area, Diego Fagundez jumped to block the cross, but the ball instead went off Fagundez’s elbow area, Ford again gave the signal for video review, and Ford determined that the ball did hit off Fagundez’s elbow, which meant handball was called against Fagundez, and with Fagundez inside the penalty area, LAFC were awarded the penalty, which Christian Arango converted in the 59th minute for his fourth goal of the season, his third straight game with a goal and more importantly, an LAFC lead.
Austin however were not fazed, and leveled things back up in the 67th minute. Ring sent a cross to and unmarked Dominguez, who took a touch into the penalty area, deked Mbacke, then chipped a left-footed ball past Romero, the ball hit off the far post, but Fagundez stayed with the play, beat Hwan to the ball and tapped in the open net rebound to the tie game.
