Saturday, July 12 | 7:30 p.m. PT | Presented by University of Phoenix
🏟 | BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA - Gates open at 6 p.m.
📻 | 710 AM ESPN, ESPN LA App, and KFWB 980 AM La Mera Mera
🗓 | Calendar sync
🛍 | LAFC HQ open 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. via exterior entrance and 6-10 p.m. via interior entrance.
🕹 | Level Up Arcade open pre-game from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and for 90 minutes after the final whistle.
Unbeaten in ten of its last 11 league games, LAFC welcomes FC Dallas to BMO Stadium on Saturday night with plans to continue stacking points and climbing the Western Conference table.
Since LAFC’s foray into the FIFA Club World Cup, where the Black & Gold fell 2-0 to Chelsea – the English power that has since advanced to Sunday’s Club World Cup Final against Paris St.-Germain – the club has returned to MLS play with a 1-0 defeat to the Vancouver Whitecaps on June 29 and a 3-0 victory over 10-man Colorado in its last outing on July 9.
“We're coming back to the rhythm we had before the Club World Cup,” midfielder Timmy Tillman said after training on Friday. “Before the Club World Cup we were very successful, very confident, and that's where we are right now, especially emotionally. We just need to keep that confidence high and keep performing.”
FORM CHECK
Over its last 11 league games, LAFC has a record of 5W-5D-1L and has outscored opponents 25-14 with three clean sheets and three games in which the team allowed just a single goal.
Overall, LAFC is 8W-5L-5D in league play, good for sixth place in the Western Conference on points, despite playing at least two fewer games than every other team. The Black & Gold has won more home games (7) and earned more points at home (22) than any team in the West.
FC Dallas is currently in 13th place in the Western Conference (5W-9L-6D, 21 points). Its most recent game was a 2-1 home loss to third-place Minnesota on July 4.
LAFC forward Denis Bouanga had a goal and an assist against the Rapids Wednesday night, giving him nine goals and six assists on the season – both team highs.
Dallas forward Petar Musa leads his team in goals (seven) and assists (four). Former MLS MVP Lucho Acosta has added five goals.
LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has recorded six clean sheets in MLS play this year. His next league game will mark his 50th MLS appearance in LAFC colors.
STORY TIME
Any mention of Bouanga and home matches against Dallas must harken back to March 25, 2023, when the three-time MLS All-Star was still new to the league – and new to the Black & Gold as well.
Bouanga had scored a brace against the Galaxy during LAFC’s MLS Cup title run in ’22, but he was not yet a club icon when he left LAFC for a few days that March to join Gabon’s national team for African Cup of Nations qualifying. Bouanga played all 90 minutes of Gabon’s win over Sudan, then immediately boarded a flight to Turkey, followed by a 6,000-mile flight to Los Angeles, where LAFC was preparing to take on FC Dallas. After 13 hours of continuous travel, Bouanga arrived at LAX less than an hour before kickoff.
LAFC was ahead 1-0 when Bouanga entered the match in the 65th minute. Current LAFC defender Nkosi Tafari – who was with FC Dallas at the time – scored in the 73rd minute to tie the game 1-1. In the 84th minute, Bouanga sent a low, right-footed missile toward goal that snuck past the FCD keeper and into the net from an acute angle. It proved to be the matchwinner, and it was delivered from the other side of the globe.
“It speaks volumes for his character and his attitude and I guess his love for LAFC,” Cherundolo said after that match. “He really wanted to help and he really wanted to play and he’ll do everything in his power to make that happen.”
It was Bouanga’s third MLS goal of the 2023 season. Seventeen more league goals would follow, along with that year’s MLS Golden Boot award. Bouanga tallied 18 more times in other competitions, for a total of 38 – among the top ten goal totals in the world for the 2023 calendar year.
The Dallas goal at BMO was especially memorable, however, even if Bouanga admitted with a smirk after the game... “It was a cross.”
FC DALLAS CAN WIN IF
It gets on the board first and alters LAFC's game model. Taking three points home to Texas will not be easy against an LAFC side that is 11W-2L-1D at home in all competitions this year and that has recorded a clean sheet in eight of its 14 home matches.
LAFC CAN WIN IF
It summons the performance level required to meet its goal of climbing the Western Conference standings. As Tillman put it: “Every single game is important for us, especially now that we need to chase a little bit. We are in the middle of the table; that's not where we want to be, but that's just where we are right now. So every single point counts for us, and that's why we need to win games.”
