Los Angeles FC continued their hot run of form with a 4-0 thumping of visiting Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night.
Denis Bouanga tallied a brace and an assist as he and Son Heung-min extended their scoring streaks to three games. LAFC (10-5-3, 33 points) maintained their perfect record since the World Cup break.
Both Kansas City (4-11-2, 14 points) center backs found themselves wanting for pace in the first half. Son opened the scoring just five minutes in when SKC’s Zorhan Bassong inadvertently placed the ball into his path with a heavy tackle in the central midfield. Son beat Wyatt Meyer to the runaway ball and cut it past goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland (one save) with ease.
Bouanga made it 2-0 in the 37th minute off a perfectly weighted ball from Mathieu Choiniere deep in his own third. Bouanga escaped the pursuit of Or Blorian before chipping it over a helpless Cleveland.
SKC were burned once again in transition in added time, with David Martinez on the receiving end of a long switch from Bouanga. Meyer caught up to his man on this occasion, but couldn’t stop him from extending the lead to three with a left-footed shot.
Bouanga nabbed his second goal in the 85th minute from the edge of the box off a slick feed from substitute Tyler Boyd.
SKC striker Dejan Joveljic thought he had extended his own scoring streak when he found the back of the net in the 70th minute but the goal was called off on a clear offside. Zorhan Bassong gave Hugo Lloris his first real test minutes later, forcing the French goalkeeper into a diving save to meet his long-range effort.
Lloris recorded his tenth clean sheet of the season with one save. He has allowed just a single goal in his team’s three matches since returning to play. Los Angeles is undefeated against Kansas City in their last eleven encounters and has won four straight.
–Field Level Media
