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Denis Bouanga’s goal gives LAFC 1-1 draw with Earthquakes

July 9, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Feeling downright quaint compared to Tuesday’s record-setting attendance at the Rose Bowl, the Los Angeles Football Club returned home to BMO Stadium on Saturday hoping to end a three-match losing streak.

A draw against the San Jose Earthquakes in front of an announced crowd of 22,033 — some 60,000 fewer than the Fourth of July crowd that watched LAFC lose 2-1 to the Galaxy — was enough to stop their slide.

Denis Bouanga scored his 12th goal of the season, smashing a penalty kick down the middle that leveled the match in the first half. The French MLS All-Star earned the opportunity when he was fouled in the box attempting to sidestep a defender.

San Jose captain Christian Espinoza, also an All-Star, finished his 10th league goal of the year minutes earlier, giving the Earthquakes a short-lived lead.

LAFC (9-7-6, 33 points) dictated terms of the second half, especially after opposing goalkeeper Daniel De Sousa Brito was shown a red card in the 56th minute for a handball outside the box that disrupted an LAFC breakaway by Mateusz Bogusz following a perfectly weighted pass from Kellyn Acosta.

“We did enough to win tonight,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “We’re just having trouble crossing the finish line now.”

Still, the result produced the first home points for LAFC since June 21. They have tallied eight points over their last six matches at BMO Stadium, including a 2-1 victory over San Jose in May, when Carlos Vela connected on a game-winning penalty kick in the 95th minute.

The last of three regular season meetings between the California clubs on Saturday — the first draw in 15 all-time meetings — featured the return of Senegalese center back Mamadou Fall off a 12-month loan to La Liga’s Villareal CF.

Fall was slotted into the middle of the LAFC back line alongside Honduran Denil Maldonado, who has been the team’s most reliable interior defender for the past two months.

“He’s been here a few days,” Maldonado said of Fall. “So to have the opportunity to build the friendship and more importantly everyone is here to provide and put their input and give their all from the team. So it is a good feeling to get that vibe from players that are coming back or incoming.”

With injuries, international duty, and fatigue stretching LAFC center back options thin, Fall’s availability was welcome, albeit challenging, the 20-year-old defender said.

“Throwing Fall in right away without a proper preseason and having to play 90 minutes is never easy,” Cherundolo noted after the match.

In Spain, Fall primarily played with Villareal’s B team, registering nearly 2,000 minutes after 22 starts with that group. He played a pair of appearances with the senior squad.

Fall noted that the key lesson he took from training and competing in Spain over the past year was to “keep it simple and smart.”

Over two seasons with LAFC, Fall played 35 regular season matches and made 29 starts. In the months before transferring last August, Fall appeared to fall out of favor with Cherundolo, starting one of the last 11 games he was available after doing so in 13 of the club’s first 14 matches.

Fall returned to LAFC with a maturity he did not have when he left, coaches and players said.

On the field, they welcomed his physical play, ability to run down attackers, close spaces, and to be a threat for headers on set pieces. As well as strong passing out of the back.

“That’s what I expect to see,” Cherundolo said. “I would also expect to see a few tactical mistakes here and there, which is completely normal and natural and common for younger defenders anywhere in the world.”

After creating a couple dangerous chances with passes deep into the San Jose end, a Fall foible prompted the Earthquakes (7-7-8, 29 points) goal a half hour into the match.

Moments after he had put Fall in the spin cycle, San Jose captain Christian Espinoza outraced the long-legged defender on a counterattack. A cutback of the ball toward the middle of the box created plenty of room to hit a left footed shot past John McCarthy.

“I made a couple mistakes,” Fall said. “I think it was a terrible defensive play from me. I will take it on myself that they scored.”

The finish, which Cherundolo described as another soft goal, was the Argentine midfielder’s fourth against LAFC, the most for any Earthquakes player.

“That’s always difficult to find some continuity and to understand each other’s movements and habits you want and need in a backline,” Cherundolo said. “We’re fighting that at the moment. Sometimes it’s an individual mistake. Sometimes a tactical error. Sometimes it’s a little unlucky. Sometimes a collective failure. It’s always something and those somethings need to go away fast.”

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Denis Bouanga’s goal gives LAFC 1-1 draw with Earthquakes

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