The Riverside Press-Enterprise
LAFC, Galaxy win; Wave open with record crowd
Dénis Bouanga scored two goals and added a late assist as LAFC ended a three-game winless and scoreless streak with a 5-0 victory over Nashville SC late on Saturday night.
Bouanga, last season’s Golden Boot winner with 20 goals and seven assists, scored in the 18th and 48th minutes.
Timothy Tillman scored from close range in the 9th minute to open the scoring for LAFC (2-2-1). Cristian Olivera scored in the 75th minute, with an assist from David Martínez, to make it 3-0. Eduard Atuesta’s header goal came in the sixth minute of second-half stoppage time. Bouanga had the assist.
Hugo Lloris had one save for LAFC, which entered having lost to Real Salt Lake 3-0, Sporting Kansas City 2-0 and Minnesota United 2-0. It was the club’s first clean sheet since since a 4-0 win over Moca FC in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Hany Mukhtar, the 2022 Golden Boot winner, had his right-footed shot blocked in the 72nd minute for Nashville (1-1-3), which lost for the first time this season after beating Charlotte 2-1 last time out.
Joe Willis was shown a red card in the 62nd minute and Elliot Joseph Panicco finished in goal for Nashville. The pair combined for three saves. GALAXY 3, SPORTING KC 2 >> Dejan Joveljic scored a goal to tie an MLS record and Marky Delgado scored the game-winner in the 80th minute as the the Galaxy made three secondhalf goals to beat Sporting Kansas City late on Saturday night.
Delgado, who leads the Galaxy (2-0-3) with four assists, fired his right-footed shot from the right side of the 6-yard box to the bottom right corner of the net.
Joveljic scored his rightfooted shot to the bottom right corner of the net in the 75th minute. Joveljic has scored a goal in each of the club’s first five games of the season, matching Columbus’ Brian Mcbride (1998) for the longest goal-scoring streak to start a season in league history. Riqui Puig had the assist.
Galaxy defender Eriq Zavaleta, making his first start of the season, scored in the 72nd.
Sporting’s Nemanja Radoja’s shot from close range opened the scoring in the 34th minute. Dániel Sallói had the assist following a corner kick. William Agada made it 2-0 for Sporting (11-3) in the third minute of first-half stoppage time.
Jake Davis and Rémi
Walter each had shots blocked in the 89th minute for Sporting.
NWSL highlight
CURRENT 2, WAVE 1 >> The Kansas City Current fell behind early but responded with two goals to earn a road win against the San Diego Wave in front of 32,066, an NWSL home opener record, at rainy Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego.
Izzy Rodriguez and Lo’eau Labonta scored for the Current (2-0-0).
In the 17th minute, Adrianna Franch pushed away Alex Morgan’s header off a corner kick, but Sofia Jakobsson was there to slide the followup shot into the left corner for the Wave.
Rodriguez tied it up just before halftime, turning quickly in the box and firing a shot into the goal with her left foot.
Labonta put the Current up in the 71st minute, slotting a penalty into the right corner after teammate Bia Zaneratto was taken down in the box.
The Wave responded with 11 second-half shots, but Franch made four saves to hold onto the win. The match was San Diego’s (0-1-0) first of the regular season. The club won the NWSL Challenge Cup against Gotham FC last week, which didn’t count as a regular-season result.