LOS ANGELES — Seeking to break a pattern of slow starts and late rallies, the Los Angeles Football Club stepped up their tempo and intensity from the opening whistle Saturday at BMO Stadium.
Young Nathan Ordaz, who partnered in LAFC’s starting attack with an even younger David Martínez and explosive showstopper Denis Bouanga, gave LAFC a lead 10 minutes in and the Black & Gold never looked back, defeating the Houston Dynamo 2-0.
Following a high-quality cross at the near post by the 19-year-old Martínez, Ordaz, 21, hit paydirt for his second MLS goal of the season.
Making a third start as goalkeeper for Houston, former Galaxy man Jonathan Bond stopped Ordaz’s first attempt (one of six first-half saves for the Englishman). However, the ball trickled behind Bond, allowing Ordaz, an LAFC homegrown and Van Nuys native, to touch home the rebound.
“I get yelled at every day in practice to make it to that first post, so that’s what I did,” Ordaz said. “Thank God the goalie did what he did and I’m very happy with it.”
Ordaz’s finish came on a rolling counterattack that progressed from center back Eddie Segura to midfielder Timothy Tillman to Martínez to fullback Sergio Palencia, who delivered the cross that helped snap a scoreless stretch of 498 minutes against Houston (not counting the 2023 MLS Western Conference final, which LAFC won 2-0). The Salvadoran international has four goals in all competitions, a new career high.
By pressing and counter-pressing, LAFC (5-4-3, 17 points) limited the possession-happy Dynamo (2-5-4, 10 points) to four total shots, none on target against Hugo Lloris, while forcing Bond into eight saves through 90 minutes plus stoppage time. The outcome was good for Lloris’s fourth shutout in 10 starts.
“Tonight I saw a more complete performance on both sides of the ball and was very happy with the way we played,” said LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo, who returned to the bench after a one-match suspension for a red card in Portland. “From the get go it didn’t feel to me at no point were we in danger of losing this game.”
LAFC eased whatever stress it felt down the stretch when substitute Jeremy Ebobisse, who had just replaced Ordaz, pounded a shot from the top of the box with his left foot in the 79th minute. The two-on-one sequence produced Bouanga’s third assist of the year when he fed Ebobisse with enough space to hit the shot.
“Sometimes goalies can make good saves, and that was definitely a concern, but it felt very smooth coming off,” Ebobisse said. “So I was glad to see it hit the back of the net. Sometimes strikers need a bit of confidence.”
After missing four weeks and five games due to an adductor injury, Saturday was Ebobisse’s third straight appearance for LAFC. His second goal of the regular season joins the home-opening game-winner that came against Minnesota on Feb. 22. The 28-year-old forward, who signed as a free agent in the offseason, said he expects to be ready when called upon and to make the most of those moments for himself and his teammates.
On that front, mission accomplished.
“I think that’s exactly what any coach or teammate is gonna want out of subs that come onto the field,” Ebobisse said. “We want to build off of that. We know there’s a tough stretch of games coming, and hopefully some important games too, and so we want everyone firing on full confidence so that whoever’s on the field can get the job done.”
Throughout training this week, finding the extra pass to create good chances was drilled into the players. And Bouanga’s dish to Ebobisse was an example of that. Bouanga, however, fell shy of scoring for a fourth consecutive match despite five of his nine shots hitting the target, tying a career high. It was his third straight match with nine shots.
The outcome, meanwhile, ended Houston’s unbeaten streak at four, which began when they beat LAFC 1-0 in early April, and an improbable run of five straight regular season shutouts against the Black & Gold.
Late in the match, Dynamo fullback Franco Escobar, a veteran of LAFC’s 2022 MLS Cup-winning team, was shown a second yellow card in stoppage time and was forced off the field.
LAFC homegrown Erik Dueñas also returned to BMO Stadium for the first time with Houston, and was recognized pre-match, but did not play.
“We pushed the pace pretty good, and I don’t think they had much to offer back,” Ordaz said.
As the calendar turned over to the busy month of May, which features seven regular season MLS games, including against the bottom three teams in the west (Houston was the first) and a trip to worst-in-the-east Montreal, securing three points was exactly what Cherundolo hoped Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 22,127.
The positive scoreline pushed LAFC to four straight games in the league without a loss, taking eight out of 12 points over that stretch. LAFC improved to 7-1 in all competitions this year when scoring first, and, since Cherundolo assumed the head coaching role in 2022, is 52-3-4 when it jumps ahead in MLS regular season contests.
“We wanted to be aggressive,” Cherundolo said. “We wanted to be on our front foot and cause problems. I think we did a great job with that. And on top of that, we created some chances with the ball, some in transition, some in the run of play. I was happy with the improved performance.”