There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel for LAFC.
A tired, weary LAFC is finally approaching the opportunity to get some extended rest and recuperation. Playing its final mid-week match following a long stretch of midweek matches, LAFC ended its four-match winless streak with a convincing 3-0 win over West-leading St. Louis City SC at BMO Stadium.
“There were up and down moments, and with a long season there’s always up and down moments,” LAFC keeper John McCarthy said. “Every team will go through it at some point or has gone through it. We just went through a rough patch and not to say we won’t go through it again, but you gotta find a way to fight through those games and we fought tonight to make sure we got a result we wanted.”
LAFC has one more match, this Saturday in Minneapolis against Minnesota United FC, before it embarks on a long break that will not see them play a match until August 2, when it kicks off the knockout stages of the inaugural Leagues Cup tournament. In addition, LAFC will not play a midweek match until September 20, when ironically, it will head to the Gateway City to face this very same St. Louis squad.
Scoreless for 66 minutes, LAFC from that point on took control of the match. LAFC broke through in the 67th minute, as Cifuentes one-timed a long ball forward, and Vela got behind the St. Louis defense while still keeping himself onside to make the run, Vela took a coupled of touches into the penalty area, then slotted the left-footed shot past keeper Roman Burki far post to put LAFC ahead.
The floodgates opened for LAFC soon after. LAFC doubled it advantage in the 82nd minute, as Vela backheeled a ball to Bouanga, and he freely dribbled down the left side. Bouanga played a perfectly weighted cross into the penalty area to the feet of Stipe Biuk, and he one-timed the shot past Burki into the back net. Cifuentes put the icing on the cake for LAFC in stoppage time, as he received a ball from Nathan Ordaz, touched into the penalty area and sent the left-footed shot into the back net uncontested to put the bow on the three points for LAFC.
“Our message to the guys last night and in the days preparing for this match was be patient but you can’t get outworked and you have to be good in second ball situations and in those transition moments defensively and be quite narrow,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherudolo said.
The first half saw the two teams play to a standstill, with both teams attempting to grind out the match. The second half saw both teams start to open up, LAFC’s best chance came in the 55th minute, as a shot by Cifuentes was saved, but spilled back out by Burki, and unmarked Bouanga tried to pounce on the rebound chance, but was caught out of position, and the ball was eventually cleared out. St. Louis’s best chance to find the back net was in the 67th minute, as Célio Pompeu sent a corner kick into the penalty area, the ball took a bounce and to the feet of Tomas Ostrak, who quickly took the shot, but was blocked by Diego Palacios, the ball went to the feet of Jeff Nelson, who sent a ball back into the penalty area, the ball took a dangerous curl towards the upper right corner, but just missed.
