LOS ANGELES — Seeking to break a pattern of slow starts and late rallies, the Los Angeles Football Club stepped up their tempo and intensity off 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.
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 goal against Hugo Lloris, while peppering Bond and forcing him to make eight saves through 90 minutes and stoppage time.
This was Lloris’s fourth shutout in 10 starts.
LAFC eased whatever stress it may have 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.
Ebobisse’s second goal of the regular season joined his home opening game winner against Minnesota on Feb. 22.
After missing four weeks and five games due to an adductor injury, Saturday was Ebobisse’s third straight appearance for LAFC.
The 28-year-old forward, who signed as a free agent in the offseason, said this week that he expects to be ready when called upon and to make the most of those moments for himself and his teammates. On that front, he accomplished both.
Securing three points was exactly what LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo hoped for as the calendar turned to a busy month of May featuring 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.
The outcome ended Houston’s string of four unbeaten matches that began when they defeated LAFC 1-0 in early April.
Meanwhile, it pushed the host’s streak of regular season results to four, taking eight out of 12 points over that stretch. LAFC improved to 7-1 in all competitions when scoring first this year, and is 52-3-4 when it has done so in MLS regular season contests since Cherundolo assumed the role in 2022.
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