Star forwards Denis Bouanga<\/a> and Son Heung-min thrashed the struggling visitors.<\/p>\nLAFC got on the board seven minutes in when, deep inside the Orlando box, a cross from Son was knocked past former Black & Gold goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau when it deflected off defender David Brekalo for an own-goal.<\/p>\n
Not that LAFC needed the help against Orlando (1-5-0, 3 points), which entered the contest with an interim head coach and the leakiest defense unit in the league.<\/p>\n
Coming off an international window that saw Son join South Korea for a pair of friendlies, he and Bouanga\u00a0had combined for just one goal since the second game.<\/p>\n
But Bouanga\u2019s cool streak took all of nine minutes to crush. Three goals in the 20th, 23rd and 28th minutes came in rapid-fire,\u00a0as\u00a0Son\u00a0assisted each time while Bouanga tied for the third-fastest hat-trick in MLS history.<\/p>\n
With the birth of his third child looming, the 31-year-old Bouanga skipped international duty to stay in L.A. with his family, rest and give his legs a chance to recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see the previous game (at Austin), I\u2019m so limited,\u201d Bouanga said. \u201cI didn\u2019t run too much. But now, after five days off, my feeling is all the best. Now I\u2019m waiting to play again.\u201d<\/p>\n
A rejuvenated Bouanga attacked from the left and the right, and whenever space presented itself, he was ready to exploit.<\/p>\n
As good as the Frenchman was while scoring his fifth MLS hat-trick, Dos Santos called Son the best player on the night.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old attacker\u2019s\u00a0fourth assist came when he cut the ball back to fullback Sergi Palencia\u00a0in the 39th minute\u00a0for the Spaniard\u2019s first goal of 2026. Bouanga was also credited with an assist on the play.<\/p>\n
Versus Orlando (1-5-0, 3 points), the stars resembled the dynamic duo who struck fear in the hearts of MLS teams after joining forces last year \u2014 becoming the first teammates in MLS history with four goal involvements apiece during a single half of the same game.<\/p>\n
Though Son did not score, his 11 assists on the club\u2019s 24 goals in all competitions stand out through 10 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cSonny has been amazing for our group,\u201d Dos Santos said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have to score every time. He has to help the team, and that\u2019s what he\u2019s doing. Today I saw Sonny very involved, very committed, so intense from the beginning, how he pressed the opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Korean\u2019s quartet of assists was one shy of the MLS single-game record set by Lionel Messi last year, and established a new high for LAFC.<\/p>\n
Both Son and Bouanga were removed in the 58th minute, a preplanned move regardless of the score, Dos Santos said.<\/p>\n
Canadian winger Jacob Shaffelburg then made his LAFC debut, replacing Bouanga. In fine fashion, the speedy forward, who underwent groin surgery in the preseason after arriving in a trade with Nashville, struck a perfect cross that was headed into goal by Tyler Boyd, increasing the lead to 6-0 in the 70th minute.<\/p>\n
Forward Jeremy Ebobisse also played for the first time this season, replacing Boyd shortly after the New Zealander\u2019s\u00a0initial\u00a0goal for LAFC.<\/p>\n
At the opposite end of the field, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris\u2019s half-dozen saves locked down his sixth straight shutout in the league.<\/a> The performance extended the club\u2019s streak in MLS without conceding for 542 minutes, going back to last year \u2014 seven shy of the LAFC record set in 2024.<\/p>\nAs a lead-in to Tuesday\u2019s CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal first leg at BMO Stadium versus Mexican power Cruz Azul, the performance was everything LAFC could have hoped for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to take care of every game very seriously,\u201d Palencia said. \u201cWhat we have in our heads is respect, be humble, work hard. No matter what\u2019s the score. No matter who\u00a0is the rival. No matter where we play. I think today we showed that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 A soccer match was scheduled for Saturday night at BMO Stadium. In actuality, a soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[63686,43214,139,141,140,2062,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-219461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-lafc","9":"tag-los-angeles-football-club","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news","13":"tag-soccer","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}