LAFC extended its winning streak to three games, scoring four times for the third consecutive game, defeating Real Salt Lake 4-1 in front of a capacity crowd at BMO Stadium on Sunday night. Denis Bouanga tallied a hat trick while Son Heung-Min scored the eventual game-winner, his first-ever goal at BMO Stadium, late in first-half stoppage time.
With the win, LAFC improved to 14-7-8 on the season for 50 points and officially clinched a spot in the 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs for the seventh time in the last eight years.
Prior to the game, LAFC honored Carlos Vela, the first player signed in LAFC history and the captain for the club’s historic 2022 MLS Cup triumph. Vela scored 93 goals in 186 games for LAFC in all competitions and had been the club’s all-time leading goal scorer before being surpassed by Bouanga on Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.
Despite the raucous atmosphere inside the stadium, Real Salt Lake took the lead in the 14th minute when Brayan Vera rocketed a left-footed shot that found the top corner of the net from outside the area, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead against the run of play.
It looked like RSL would be able to take a one-goal advantage into the locker room at halftime before LAFC struck twice in first-half stoppage time to take a 2-1 lead. Less than 30 seconds into added time, Bouanga and Son played a quick one-two at the top of the area that Bouanga finished for his 20th goal of the season, becoming the first player in MLS history to score 20 or more goals in three consecutive seasons, tying the score at 1-1.
Two minutes later, a quick interchange between Son and David Martínez at the top of the area allowed the Korean international to fire a left-footed shot off the post and into the net, past the dive of Salt Lake goalkeeper Rafael Cabral from 20 yards out, giving LAFC a 2-1 halftime lead.
The score would stay that way until the 73rd minute when Son and Andrew Moran, who was making his BMO Stadium debut, combined to play in Bouanga, who calmly clipped his shot over the outstretched hand of Cabral, making the score 3-1.
Bouanga finished off his hat trick 14 minutes later when Jeremy Ebobisse collected a loose ball in the attacking third and quickly played a pass forward for Bouanga. The Gabon international took one touch before hitting a right-footed shot into the net, making the score 4-1. With that goal, Bouanga moved into a tie with Lionel Messi for the MLS Golden Boot lead and helped LAFC become the first team in MLS history to have a player record a hat trick in three consecutive games, with Bouanga also accomplishing the feat on September 13 in San Jose and Son doing so at Real Salt Lake on September 17.
LAFC is back in action on Saturday, September 27 when the club travels to take on St. Louis CITY. That game is scheduled to kick off at 5:30 p.m. PT and can be seen live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, with radio coverage available on 710 AM ESPN, the ESPN LA app, KYPA 1230 AM [Korean], and 980 AM La Mera Mera [Spanish].
NOTES:
- With the win, LAFC has won three consecutive games and is now 14-7-8 on the season for 50 points, including a 9-4-2 mark at home.
- This is the sixth time in eight seasons in MLS that LAFC has recorded 50 or more points.
- With Denis Bouanga’s hat trick, LAFC became the first team in MLS history to have a player record a hat trick in three consecutive games. Bouanga scored three times against San Jose on September 13, while Son recorded the first hat trick of his MLS career on September 17. Since the start of MLS in 1996, a team has recorded hat tricks in consecutive games just 10 times, but it had never been done in three straight games until tonight.
- Bouanga’s hat trick was his fourth in MLS, moving him past Carlos Vela for the most regular-season hat tricks in LAFC history.
- Bouanga and Son have combined to score the last 14 LAFC goals, dating back to the 1-1 draw with FC Dallas on August 23. Bouanga has eight goals in that time while Son has six.
- Since making his MLS debut in Chicago on August 9, Son has scored six goals and added three assists, meaning that he has factored in half of the 18 goals
- LAFC has scored in that time. The club is 4-1-2 in those seven matches, with just two of them being played at BMO Stadium.
- In all competitions this year, LAFC is 14-4-4 at BMO Stadium.
- LAFC has scored four goals in each of its last three games for a total of 12 goals in that time. This is the first time that LAFC has scored four goals or more in three consecutive games, and it is the second-most goals that the club has scored in a three-game span. In the 2019 season, LAFC scored 14 times in a three-game span in July of that year, in wins over Sporting Kansas City, Vancouver, and Houston. Like LAFC’s current goal-scoring form, two of those three games were on the road.
- This is the first time that LAFC has ever scored four or more goals in three consecutive league games.
