Fourth-place Los Angeles FC will try to sweep a home-and-home series Sunday night when it hosts Real Salt Lake, a Western Conference foe still fighting for its playoff life.
South Korean star Son Heung-min scored his first career MLS hat trick roughly a month after his debut in Wednesday night’s 4-1 win at Salt Lake.
Denis Bouanga also added a goal and an assist for LAFC (13-7-8, 47 points), scoring his 93rd goal in all competitions to surpass Carlos Vela for the club lead. (Vela still leads LAFC in MLS goals with 78.)
Last weekend, Bouanga scored the hat trick and Son added the extra goal in a 4-2 win at San Jose.
The common thread in those two wins? Steve Cherundolo’s decision to play the pair in a two-striker front.
“It’s a joy playing with Deni, and Deni has a lot of quality and a lot of speed, especially when we’re playing (against) a little bit of a lower block and we have a lot of space in front,” Son said. “It’s been only two games, but I think we’ve scored a lot of goals, and we’ve enjoyed it.”
Wednesday’s victory moved LAFC above Seattle, and the Black-and-Gold still have two games in hand on West leader San Diego (56 points) and second-place Minnesota (54 points).
Salt Lake (10-15-4, 34 points) could still finish the weekend above the playoff line if the team can answer with its own away win and get good results elsewhere.
The club begins a point back of ninth-place San Jose. And while Wednesday’s score was lopsided, it wasn’t that reflective of the match, in which Rwan Cruz struck the post with a penalty early in the second half before Zavier Gozo’s goal briefly cut the deficit to 2-1.
That said, manager Pablo Mastroeni said the defending — in which his side failed to make tactical fouls to disrupt the breakaways on LAFC’s third and fourth goals — simply wasn’t savvy enough.
“I think they’re a team that took advantage of fortuitous moments. And obviously, with Son, he’s a killer,” Mastroeni said. “And give him an inch, and he did what he did. But I think from our standpoint, we’ve just got to be a bit more physical, especially on the last two goals.”
–Field Level Media
