Professional soccer | Weekend roundup
Wave 2, Angel City 0
LOS ANGELES — Sofia Jakobsson and Makenzy Doniak scored five minutes apart in the second half to give the San Diego Wave a victory over Angel City on Sunday.
A sellout crowd of 22,000 was on hand at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles for the match between the National Women’s Soccer League rivals.
Jakobsson got her goal on a Wave counterattack in the 70th minute, with defender Cristen Joan Westphal earning the assist. The forward’s first goal of the year came on her 33rd birthday.
After blocking an Angel City pass, Doniak dribbled toward the center and passed to Alex Morgan, who gave the ball right back to the midfielder. Doniak’s shot in the 75th minute deflected off a defender and fell into the upper right corner of the goal.
Morgan now has three goals and one assist after four matches for the Wave (3-1-0).
Angel City (1-2-1) outshot San Diego 16 to seven, but only two of the home team’s shots were on target.
U.S. women’s national team midfielder Julie Ertz made her debut for Angel City after signing with the club earlier in the week. Ertz had not played in the National Women’s Soccer League since the spring of 2021 due to injuries and taking time off for the birth of her son.
LAFC 1, Nashville SC 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Dénis Bouanga scored early in the second half to help Los Angeles FC earn a 1-1 draw with Nashville SC on Saturday night.
Bouanga used an assist from Stipe Biuk to score the equalizer in the 59th minute for LAFC (5-0-3). Bouanga has seven goals this season. Jordan Morris had a league-high eight goals for the Seattle Sounders entering play.
Hany Mukhtar took a pass from Teal Bunbury and scored in the 35th minute to give Nashville (3-3-3) a 1-0 lead at halftime. Mukhtar, the reigning MVP, had not contributed to a goal in Nashville’s last two home matches but had never gone three straight at home without a goal or an assist.
LAFC had advantages of 19-8 in shots and 6-3 in shots on goal.
John McCarthy had two saves for LAFC. Joe Willis totaled five saves for Nashville.
Nashville managed to earn a point for the tie after losing its three previous matches this season when yielding a goal. Nashville has just one victory in its last 18 matches when conceding at least one goal.
Each team picked up a road win over the other last season in the only two previous match-ups.
Nashville remains home to host Atlanta United on Saturday. LAFC is idle.
Galaxy 2, Austin FC 0
CARSON — Javier Hernández Balcázar and Riqui Puig scored second-half goals to rally the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 2-0 victory over Austin FC on Saturday night.
Balcázar, who goes by the nickname Chicharito, took a pass from Dejan Joveljic and scored in the 54th minute to give the Galaxy the lead. Puig added an insurance goal 10 minutes later with an assist from Mark Delgado to help LA hold on for its first victory of the season.
The Galaxy (1-4-3) beat Austin for a third straight time and improved to 4-1-0 all-time in the series.
Austin (2-4-2) has gone 0-3-2 in its last five matches with only one goal scored. Austin has scored only six goals this season. The club scored six goals in the first 112 minutes of last season.
LA had advantages of 18-11 in shots and 8-2 in shots on goal.
Jonathan Klinsmann saved two shots to earn the clean sheet for the Galaxy. Brad Stuver totaled six saves for Austin.
Austin returns home to host the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday. The Galaxy travel to play Orlando City on Saturday.