The Los Angeles Football Club scored three second-half goals en route to a convincing 3-0 win over St. Louis CITY on Wednesday night at BMO Stadium.
The two sides had few clear chances over the opening 70 minutes before Carlos Vela broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute. Stipe Biuk doubled the lead for LAFC 10 minutes later and Jose Cifuentes rounded out the scoring in second-half stoppage time with his first MLS goal of the season. The win snapped LAFC’s four-game winless streak and is the Club’s first win at home since June 21.
LAFC is now 10-6-6 on the season for 36 points. LAFC’s win, combined with Seattle’s loss, moves the Black & Gold into second place in the Western Conference, two points behind first place St. Louis CITY.
NEWS & NOTES
- With their first goal tonight, LAFC became the fastest team in MLS history to score 350 all-time regular season goals, needing just 180 games to achieve the feat. The previous record was D.C. United scored their 350th goal in the 184th game in club history.
- The win snaps LAFC’s four-game winless streak during which the club was 0-3-1. That was LAFC’s second-longest winless streak this season, with the Club going 0-5-1 across all competitions from May 23-June 14.
- Tonight’s game was the first-ever match between LAFC and the expansion St. Louis CITY. St. Louis is the sixth team to debut in MLS since 2019, and LAFC is now a perfect 6-0-0 when facing an expansion team for the first time. In those six games, LAFC has scored 15 times while conceding just once.
- Dating back to September 2022, LAFC is now unbeaten in their last 15 regular season games in which they score first.
- Since their inaugural season in 2018, LAFC has now won 10 or more games five times. The only time they did not was in the 2020 shortened season when they won nine.
- Vela now has 76 MLS regular season goals since coming to the league in 2018, leaving him tied for 30th in MLS history.
- Vela was also credited with an assist on Stipe Biuk’s goal in the 83rd minute. This is his third MLS regular season game this season with a goal and an assist, and the 20th time he has done it since coming to MLS.
- Denis Bounaga picked up an assist on Biuk’s goal. He now has 26 goal involvements (19 goals and seven assists) in 31 games this year in all competitions.
- That goal was the first goal assisted on by each Bouanga and Vela since Mahala Opoku’s game-winning goal in the season-opening win over Portland on March 4.
- Biuk now has three goals on the season, leaving him third on the team behind Bouanga and Vela.
Two of Biuk’s three goals this season were assisted by Bouanga, whose last assist in MLS play came on the first goal of Biuk’s LAFC career on March 12 against New England. - Jose Cifuentes, who assisted on Vela’s eventual game-winning goal, rounded out the scoring in second-half stoppage time. That was his first goal of the regular season, giving him at least one in each of his four years with LAFC.
- Cifuentes’ last MLS goal was on August 13, 2022, and that also came in a win over an expansion team, a 5-0 home win over Charlotte FC. That was also the last time that Cifuentes had a goal and an assist in the same league game.
- Nathan Ordaz, playing his 10th regular season game of the year, tallied the first assist of his MLS career on Cifuentes’ goal.
- Denil Maldonado also collected the first assist of his MLS career on that goal.
- Ilie Sanchez played the 199th game of his MLS career. With his next appearance, Sanchez will become the 201st player in league history to appear in 200 regular season games.
- John McCarthy made two saves for his seventh shutout of the season. In 43 appearances before this season, McCarthy had seven shutouts. This season he was able to match that total in just 20 appearances.
- As a Club, LAFC has eight clean sheets, which is the third-most in MLS this season. Only Seattle (11) and FC Cincinnati (9) have more shutouts than LAFC this season.
- After scoring three or more goals nine times in the first 17 games of the season in all competitions, LAFC did so for the first time since May 13 tonight. That ended a run of 14 consecutive games with two or fewer goals. LAFC was 3-8-3 in that stretch and was shut out six times while scoring more than once just three times.
- LAFC are now 9-0-1 when scoring first in MLS play this season, including 7-0-1 when scoring first at home.
- LAFC is joined by St. Louis CITY, Seattle, and Real Salt Lake in the top four of the Western Conference, and LAFC is 3-0-1 against those three teams, beating each of them once while also playing to a draw on the road in Seattle.
LAFC is back in action Saturday, July 15 when they travel to take on Minnesota United. That game will kick off at 5:30 p.m. PT and be broadcast live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 710 AM ESPN LA and 980 AM La Mera Mera (ESP).
