Denis Bouanga recorded a brace and Mateusz Bogusz also scored to help Los Angeles FC roll to a 3–0 victory over the host Seattle Sounders on Saturday night, July 20.
Bouanga scored one of the goals on a penalty kick. He is tied for second in goals in MLS with D.C. United star Christian Benteke. Both players have 16 goals and trail suspended Real Salt Lake standout Cristian “Chicho” Arango, who has 17.
Bogusz scored his 13th goal of the year for LAFC, who have dominated the recent rivalry with the Sounders, going 6–0–2 over the past eight matches against Seattle.
Los Angeles (14–5–5, 47 points) is 10–1–2 over its past 13 matches overall and remained in second place in the Western Conference behind the LA Galaxy.
Seattle (10–8–7, 37 points) had its seven-match MLS unbeaten streak (6–0–1) come to an end.
Hugo Lloris made four saves for LAFC while registering his ninth shutout of the season. Seattle’s Stefan Frei made one stop.
The Sounders had a 20–7 edge in shots and put five on target to LAFC’s four.
Seattle had three good chances to end the shutout in second-half stoppage time. Lloris made saves on Paul Rothrock and Danny Musovski, but the biggest stop came when Raul Ruidiaz had Lloris beat and his shot to the left corner of the net was headed away by LAFC’s Sergi Palencia.
Los Angeles received a penalty kick when a handball was called on Seattle’s Nouhou in the 14th minute during a scramble in front of the net.
Frei prevented the ball from crossing the goal line and edged it forward. Nouhou came diving in, and the ball clipped his arm.
Bouanga stepped up to the spot in the 16th minute and sent a high, booming kick into the center of the net for his 15th goal of the season.
Ten minutes later, LAFC struck again during a sequence that began with a direct kick into the pile of humanity in front of the net. The ball was knocked out to where Bogusz was standing, and he sent a right-footed volley into the left corner of the net.
Bouanga scored again in the 74th minute after Kei Kamara sent a pass ahead at midfield. Bouanga easily got past two defenders, and his right-footed shot caromed off the right hand of Frei and went into the net.
Bouanga had a chance at a hat trick in the 80th minute when he broke into the box alone, but Frei made a superb save on his left-footed shot.
