Twenty seconds encapsulated the entire night.
The moment began with LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, in the 11th minute, collecting a manageable Austin shot from distance as the big screens inside BMO Stadium showed his former France teammate, and new LAFC brother-in-arms, Olivier Giroud, chatting in a suite with actor Will Ferrell, one of LAFC’s owners.
The crowd was still applauding LAFC’s newest arrival when its other DP forward, Denis Bouanga, sprinted onto Lloris’ lengthy punt, which had bounded over the head of Austin’s last defender. A moment later Giroud and Ferrell were applauding Bouanga’s clever finish and LAFC’s 1-0 lead.
As Bouanga said several times following the 2-0 win: Voilà.
The victory advanced the Black & Gold into a Leagues Cup Round-of-16 home match against the San Jose Earthquakes, on Tuesday, August 13, at BMO Stadium, although LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo wasn’t entirely satisfied.
“Happy with the result for sure,” Cherundolo said, “advancing in the tournament within the 90 minutes, that all went to plan. I was not happy with the first half and we talked about it at half time. Mostly I talked. And I was much happier with the second half, our adjustments and improvements.”
“We could see that they were a little reluctant and that they were waiting for us a little bit,” Bouanga said after the game in French. “So the fact that I scored the first one, to open the scoring, it was easier for us to attack the spaces and score a second one. Voilà. It was magnificent, the whole second half.”
HUGO THE PLAYMAKER
The last time Lloris registered an assist, David Martínez, Lloris’ teammate and fellow starter on Wednesday, was four years old. Ferrell’s 2010 buddy comedy with Mark Wahlberg, The Other Guys, was on its way to $170 million in box office.
“Yes, I remember once in Lyon,” said Lloris, who kept goal for the perennial French power from 2008 to 2011 and can still remember the man he assisted that day, May 2, 2010. “I think it was in Montpellier, for [Michel] Bastos.”
“I also remember many times that it could have been an assist but we didn't score,” he added with a smirk.
Bouanga, who was a 15-year-old growing up in Le Mans when Lloris recorded his first pro assist, said of Lloris’ second: “We said to each other during the week that he was going to make an assist, and voilà. I expected it. I anticipated the ball going over the defender … that's why I congratulated him once the goal was scored.”
“We were hoping to gain that this year with him,” Cherundolo said of Lloris’ skill in playing long balls out of the back, “and we have gotten that. It does help us bypass some pressure moments and kind of jumpstart our offense ...
“Having Hugo, primarily his decision making - what pass to make - helps our players a lot and helps our offensive game.”
Two months after Lloris’ first career assist back in 2010, another 23-year-old Frenchman, Giroud, joined Montpellier.
“We never expected one day to be in the same team,” Lloris said, reflecting on the years they competed against one another in Ligue 1 and the English Premier League. “We enjoyed being together in the national team. Today is just a great moment to share at this stage of our career. We still want to compete. We still love the competition. We still want to win. Being together, yeah, it's going to be positive.”
PLUS DE GIROUD
Bouanga added of his Lloris-assisted goal: “I hope we'll do it next with Olivier. That would be perfect.”
Regarding the timetable for when that might happen, Cherundolo said there’s no rush to get Giroud on the field. “He is actively learning our system and all the players. That's happening in training and it happens pretty organically. It’s a pure fitness thing for him.”
Cherundolo compared Giroud’s current preparations as “like preseason … He still needs time and he'll get that time.”
Cristian Olivera, the winger who added LAFC’s second goal in the 61st minute, said in Spanish: “The truth is that training with [Giroud] is crazy. To have him in the locker room day after day, what he generates is crazy. Within each practice he handles things that – you don’t even know. He is in form in every way, on and off the field.”
THE MAN OF LE MANS
Every once in a while, it’s important to pause and appreciate what Bouanga is accomplishing. Pep Guardiola is one of the many football minds to observe that “scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in our game.” Finding the net is surely challenging for Bouanga, too, even if it doesn’t always appear that way.
Bouanga has scored 59 goals in an LAFC shirt in less than two years. He has scored more regular-season goals than anyone in MLS since the beginning of 2023.
Compared with his record-tying 2023 campaign—when Bouanga equaled Carlos Vela’s MLS mark by scoring 38 goals across all competitions—Bouanga’s production this season continues to prove the exception to Guardiola’s stated rule.
Through Bouanga’s first 30 games in all competitions in 2023, he amassed 22 goals and eight assists, for a total of 30 goal involvements. In his first thirty games of this season, Bouanga has amassed 32 goal involvements (18 goals and 14 assists).
He seems to shine brightest in Leagues Cup. Bouanga has notched 14 goal involvements in his six Leagues Cup appearances over the last two years (eight goals and six assists), registering either a goal or an assist in each six of those games.
“He’s just so fast,” Lloris said. “With Denis and Olivera, we have this tool, you know, it's a weapon in transition. If we play fast, if we manage well to get the ball into the space, they can create so much. And that was the case today.”
NOTES:
LEAGUES CUP POTPOURRI
Here are a few key points about the knockout rounds of the second-year competiton:
- After the Group Stage, 30 advancing teams join top MLS and LIGA MX clubs in single-game elimination Knockout Rounds.
- The Knockout Rounds include the Round of 32, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place, and Final.
- These rounds determine the three clubs that qualify for the Concacaf Champions Cup.
OFF TO MUNICH
LAFC Academy players Marius Aiyenero, Ethan Scally, Tyson Espy, and Adrian Sanders have traveled to Germany to train with FC Bayern Munich as part of LAFC’s "Red & Gold" initiative with the 32-time Bundesliga champions.
MINI DERBY
On Sunday, August 11, LAFC’s MLS NEXT Pro affiliate, LAFC2, will face archrival Ventura County FC at Cal Lutheran University, at 7 p.m. PT.
LAFC2 (9W-6L-4D) sits in sixth place in MLS NEXT Pro’s Western Conference. VCFC, an affiliate of LA Galaxy, is in third place.
LAFC’s Leagues Cup journey resumes with a Round-of-16 match against the San Jose Earthquakes on Tuesday, August 13, at BMO Stadium. Kickoff time is TBD. The match will be broadcast on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 710 AM ESPN LA, the ESPN LA app, and 980 AM La Mera Mera. Click here for tickets.
