LAFC tied a club record for goals in a game and extended its club-record unbeaten streak to 10 games across all competitions with a 6-2 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes at BMO Stadium on Saturday night. Five different players scored for LAFC, which also tied a club record, pushing the Black & Gold into a three-way tie with Real Salt Lake and the LA Galaxy for first place in the Western Conference.
With the win, LAFC is now 11-4-4 on the season for 37 points, including an 8-0-2 mark at BMO Stadium. The club is 9-0-1 during its current 10-game unbeaten streak, a run that began following a loss to the Earthquakes back on May 4.
LAFC controlled the game from the opening whistle and took the lead in the 15th minute thanks to Mateusz Bogusz, who headed home a Sergi Palencia cross to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
Eleven minutes later, the lead grew to 2-0 when Ryan Hollingshead slid a pass forward to Denis Bouanga, who hit a left-footed shot past San Jose goalkeeper Jacob Jackson. It was the 13th goal of the season for Bouanga, moving him into third place in MLS this season; it was the first of three assists on the night for Hollingshead, which tied a club record for assists in a game.
In the 33rd minute, Kei Kamara moved into sole possession of second place in the all-time MLS scoring list with the 146th goal of his MLS career, and his second in as many games. Bogusz got free on the left wing and whipped a cross into the box for Kamara who rose above the San Jose defense and powered a header home from close range, making the score 3-0.
LAFC extended its lead to 4-0 in the 42nd minute when Hollingshead, who scored seven combined goals in the regular season and playoffs in 2023, beat Jackson with a deflected shot for his first goal of the 2024 season.
San Jose pulled a goal back in first-half stoppage time when Rodrigues collected a Cristian Espinoza cross inside the box and fired a shot that went in off the post, making the score 4-1 going into the break. That goal was the first goal allowed by the LAFC defense at home since April 27, ending a streak of 422 consecutive minutes without conceding at BMO Stadium.
Bogusz got his second goal of the game in the 48th minute, once again getting free at the back post and getting on the end of a Bouanga cross before volleying past Jackson to make the score 5-1.
The Earthquakes were able to cut the lead once again just before the hour mark when Benjamin Kikanović headed past Hugo Lloris to make the score 5-2.
The score would stay that way until the 87th minute, when substitute Tomás Ángel scored LAFC’s sixth goal to tie a club record for goals scored in a single game. Fellow subs Erik Dueñas and Nathan Ordaz set up Ángel’s goal, with Dueñas playing Ordaz into the box on the right wing and Ordaz cutting the ball back to Ángel at the penalty spot. The first-year striker cut past one defender before placing a left-footed shot into the net for the first league goal of his MLS career.
LAFC returns home on Saturday, June 29, when it hosts the Colorado Rapids at BMO Stadium (MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 710 AM ESPN LA, 980 AM La Mera Mera) in a game that kicks off at 7:30 p.m. PT.
NEWS & NOTES
- With the win, LAFC is now unbeaten in 10 straight games in all competitions and eight straight in the league. Both are club records.
- LAFC remains unbeaten at home this season, going 8-0-2 at BMO Stadium in the league this year for 26 of a possible 30 points.
- This was the 12th time since entering MLS in 2018 that LAFC has scored five or more goals in a regular-season game. That is three more than any other MLS team since 2018. LAFC has only allowed five goals in a game three times, and it has never conceded more than five.
- This was the fourth time in the club’s history that LAFC scored six goals in a regular-season game. The last time it accomplished the feat was on September 23, 2020, in a 6-0 win over Vancouver.
- LAFC finished the game with six goals and 11 assists for 17 goal involvements on the night. Prior to tonight, the club had never had more than 13 goal involvements in a single game.
- Kei Kamara now has 146 goals in 431 all-time regular season MLS matches. He now has the second-most goals in MLS history, behind only Chris Wondolowski.
- Kamara has now scored in each of his last two games. Prior to this stretch, he had not scored in consecutive MLS regular season games since the final three games of the 2019 season and the first game of the 2020 campaign when he played with the Colorado Rapids.
- Ryan Hollingshead tied an LAFC record with three assists in the win. He joins Diego Rossi (3/10/18 at Real Salt Lake) and Mark-Anthony Kaye (4/21/19 vs. Seattle) as the only players in club history with three assists in a game. He also had a goal in the game, giving him four goal involvements, which are the second-most in club history.
- The goal was Hollingshead’s first of the season.
- Mateusz Bogusz had two goals and an assist in the game. He now has a goal or an assist in all eight games during LAFC’s current league unbeaten streak, joining Carlos Vela as the only players in club history to register a goal involvement in eight straight regular-season games. He now has nine goals and five assists on the season, both career-highs.
- Denis Bouanga finished with a goal and two assists, giving him 13 goals and eight assists on the season. He is one of four MLS players with 20 or more goal involvements this season. He joins Luciano Acosta, Cristian Arango and Lionel Messi.
- Tomás Ángel scored his first league goal in the 86th minute.
- Ángel is the son of former MLS player Juan Pablo Ángel. They are the 10th father-son duo in MLS history to score a goal in a regular-season game.
- Timothy Tillman assisted on each of LAFC’s first two goals. This was the first multi-assist game of his MLS career.
- Erik Dueñas collected his first assist of the season on LAFC’s sixth goal. That was the second assist of his MLS career and first since August 23, 2023, against Colorado.
