LOS ANGELES — Losing to Austin FC twice in the regular season off headed corner kicks, of course the final moment of Wednesday’s opening match for the MLS Cup first-round series against the Los Angeles Football Club at BMO Stadium came down to that.
After 95 minutes of rough-and-tumble soccer, Austin’s last-ditch effort to tie the match and send it to penalties was thwarted by LAFC, which won 2-1 to claim the first of two victories required to advance to the next round.
The game-winner by Nathan Ordaz in the 79th minute gave LAFC another late lead, and Steve Cherundolo’s group held on to jump ahead in a best-of-three series that heads to Austin for Game 2 on Sunday.
Ordaz’s winner came off the slightest touch from his right foot. It was set up with a quality through ball by Mark Delgado from deep in LAFC’s end to Son Heung-min, who turned and sprinted before passing it to Bouanga on his left. The Frenchman’s shot looked like it bested Austin FC goalkeeper Brad Stuver and appeared to be bouncing into the goal, yet Ordaz claimed the goal.
Held scoreless during a pair of regular-season meetings versus Austin, LAFC caught a much-needed break in the 20th minute against their tough-to-breakdown foes, jumping ahead when Ryan Hollingshead found space in the box after remaining onside by a hair.
Driving to the goal line, the 34-year-old wingback – one of the league’s top-scoring defenders who signed a two-year contract extension through 2027 last week – delivered a low cross into the six-yard box, where Austin defender Brendan Hines-Ike mis-hit his clearance and the ball snuck past Stuver for an own-goal.
Based on the tone and tenor of the opening half, that kind of breakthrough made sense.
LAFC managed to put two shots on target to Austin’s zero, and the sides combined for 17 fouls in the first 45 minutes.
That hard-nosed action was previewed when Austin midfielder Ilie Sanchez, who played three seasons with LAFC before departing as a free agent this year, shoulder-checked Son to the ground the second the game kicked off.
The tug-of-war moved into the second frame.
LAFC tried to kill off the game with a second goal, yet Austin waited patiently to make the most of the chances that it had.
After the final whistle, the visitors managed just two shots on target, but in the 63rd minute the lowest-scoring team to clinch an MLS Cup playoff berth found the lightning strike it needed.
From the midfield, Dani Pereira sliced through a trio of LAFC players to begin an awkward sequence in the box that LAFC failed to clear. The action concluded with Austin defender Jon Gallagher tucking away a simple finish off his left foot.
As both teams battled away, the match opened up more to LAFC’s liking in the last quarter hour.
Since entering MLS in 2018, LAFC led the league in the most regular-season goals during the last 15 minutes.
On Wednesday, LAFC’s late-game push in front of announced crowd of 22,142 was boosted by the addition of Ordaz, who replaced midfielder Mathieu Choinière in the 74th minute and immediately brought movement and space to the Black & Gold attack, which put five of its 18 shots on frame.