The new MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi leader? Dénis Bouanga.
LAFC's star forward soared atop the league's goalscoring charts Wednesday evening, thanks to a first-half hat trick in their 5-1 trouncing of Minnesota United FC before the BMO Field faithful – a result that clinched their Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs spot.
The Gabon international now has 17 goals and six assists this season, potentially setting up a photo finish for the year-end award with FC Cincinnati's Luciano Acosta (16g/13a). And the latest feather in his cap boils down to a minor tweak.
“In the last three games, I tried to change things and it didn’t work," Bouanga, who has 30 goals across all competitions, said postgame. "So today, I tried to play by instinct. It worked better because I scored three goals."
Asked about Bouanga's man-of-the-match performance, LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo instead pointed to wanting more from U22 Initiative summertime singing Cristian Olivera. The Uruguay international, who's formed a front three alongside Bouanga and Carlos Vela, had a game-high eight shots and forced Miguel Tapias' 46th-minute own goal vs. Minnesota.
"He’s a young player still, a lot of talent, as we see, getting in very good spots," said Cherundolo. "He seems to understand our model well. I think our initial integration for him, getting him in those spots to understand how we want to play, where we end up beating teams and breaking teams down, he’s got that. Now, it’s just the final touch of just cleaning up his finishing a little bit, but he’ll figure that out too."
On the whole, LAFC produced the type of dynamic and clinical showing that has become their standard since joining MLS in 2018. But after being blanked in their last four matches in all competitions – Bouanga's sixth-minute equalizer snapped a string of 372 consecutive scoreless minutes – a dominant attacking performance was just what the doctor ordered.
"It’s a little bit like riding a bike; guys know how to do it," Cherundolo said. "They know how to play, they know how to score. We were quite happy with our ball progression tonight, from back to front. The speed of play was a little quicker. The speed of passing was faster. Less touches on the ball, which will increase speed of play automatically, and the end result of trying to get off the edge and create chances was more of what we like to see and what we’re striving for. Tonight, it worked."
LAFC, now third in the Western Conference, are positioned to get home-field advantage through at least Round One in the postseason. But they want even more, mindful of the pain from this year's Concacaf Champions Cup and Campeones Cup final defeats at BMO Field.
"Our mentality approaching this game was a playoff mentality," said midfielder Ilie Sánchez. " … This team has been built for big games. We haven't been good enough and sometimes lucky enough in those big games this season. Believe me, we are very hurt by that. But one thing that we learned from this season is that we cannot get stuck in the past."
LAFC close the year at desperation-mode Austin FC on Saturday (8:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass) before visiting postseason-bound Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Decision Day (Oct. 21). Afterwards, their 2022 MLS Cup defense formally begins.
"As the coach said right after the game, this is our standard," said Ilie. "So we got into the playoffs spot and we cannot go away from these standards that LAFC has set since day one and that we were able to get back to them tonight."
