LAFC extended its unbeaten streak to four games with a dramatic 3-2 win over the Portland Timbers on Saturday night at BMO Stadium. Denis Bouanga, whose 95th-minute goal last week helped LAFC earn a 2-2 draw with the New York Red Bulls, scored in the 92nd minute tonight, breaking a 2-2 deadlock and giving his team the full three points.
The Black & Gold are now 2-0-2 in their last four contests, scoring at least two goals in each, and completing an undefeated April. On the season, the club is now 4-3-3 for 15 points, leaving it in a tie for fifth place in the Western Conference, just three points out of first.
LAFC controlled the match’s opening 45 minutes, hitting the post once and having a goal called off following video review. In the 44th minute, Portland defender Kamal Miller deflected a low Denis Bouanga cross into his own goal, making the score 1-0 LAFC.
Five minutes later, in first-half stoppage time, LAFC made it 2-0 when Timothy Tillman took a pass from Cristian Olivera and fired a right-footed shot in off the post with the last kick of the first half, sending LAFC into the break with a 2-0 lead.
The score would stay that way until midway through the second half, when the Timbers scored twice in the span of eight minutes to tie the game, 2-2. Jonathan Rodríguez cut the lead to 2-1 in the 65th minute before Santiago Moreno equalized in the 73rd.
In the 76th minute, the Timbers were reduced to 10 men when Diego Chará, who was playing his 377th regular-season game for Portland (setting a new MLS record for games played with a single club), was shown his second yellow card and sent off.
LAFC would throw numbers forward over the final 15 minutes in search of a winner, and it eventually came in the second minute of second-half stoppage time. The attack started when Kei Kamara saw his header from an Eduard Atuesta corner kick saved. Portland was only able to partially clear the danger, and the ball ended up on the right side of the box at the foot of Bouanga, who hit a right-footed shot that went in off the post to give LAFC a 3-2 victory.
LAFC will be back in action next weekend on Saturday, May 4, when the club travels to Northern California to take on the San Jose Earthquakes. That game, which kicks off at 4:30 p.m. PT, can be seen live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and on 710 AM ESPN LA, 980 AM La Mera Mera (Esp) and SiriusXM FC.
NEWS & NOTES
- LAFC is now 6-5-6 all-time against the Timbers in MLS regular-season play, including a 2-0-1 record in the last three meetings at BMO Stadium.
- Saturday’s game concluded the regular-season series between the two sides, with LAFC taking four of a possible six points thanks to tonight’s win and a 2-2 draw in Portland on April 13.
- LAFC took the lead in the 44th minute courtesy of an own goal. That was the first own goal scored for LAFC this season. Prior to tonight, the last time LAFC benefited from an own goal was on October 4, 2023, in a 5-1 win over Minnesota.
- Timothy Tillman scored his fourth goal of the season in first-half stoppage time. That equals his goal total from all of 2023, when he had four goals in 25 appearances. This season he has four goals in 10 games.
- Cristian Olivera was credited with the assist on Tillman’s goal. It was the first regular-season assist of his MLS career, coming in his 20th regular-season game since joining the club in August 2023.
- Denis Bouanga, the 2023 MLS Golden Boot winner, is now tied for sixth in the league with six goals on the season. All six have come at home, including three in the last two games.
- Bouanga has now scored in second-half stoppage time in two straight games.
- Bouanga’s first-ever MLS goal was also a game-winning goal in second-half stoppage time against the Timbers, helping LAFC clinch the 2022 Supporters’ Shield on October 2, 2022.
- Maxime Chanot was credited with an assist on Bouanga’s goal. He also assisted on Bouanga’s stoppage-time goal last weekend, giving him two assists in three games with LAFC. In 165 regular-season games with NYCFC from 2016-2023, Chanot had one assist.
- LAFC defender Aaron Long missed his first game of the season after starting each of the first nine games. He suffered a lower leg injury last week against the Red Bulls.
- Eduard Atuesta and Jesús Murillo each returned to the starting lineup after missing last week’s draw with the Red Bulls.
