Denis Bouanga, LAFC slip past St. Louis City

LOS ANGELES — Since arriving in MLS two years ago, French attacker Denis Bouanga has been a black and gold wrecking ball.

The 2023 MLS Golden Boot winner bagged his 19th league goal of the season on Wednesday night, pushing LAFC to a 1-0 victory over St. Louis City at BMO Stadium.

Bouanga remains three goals behind D.C. United’s Christian Benteke in the race to be the league’s top goal scorer once again. A season-leading ninth game-winner marked Bouanga’s 26th goal in all competitions in 2024, and it was his second in as many matches following a tremendous effort in Cincinnati over the weekend to help LAFC secure a 2-1 victory.

Bouanga’s decisive contribution on Wednesday, which came during five minutes of stoppage time prior to halftime, was yet another example of his explosive qualities.

Darting past a pair of St. Louis defenders, Bouanga hammered his shot into the far corner – but it was the buildup that made the play.

Recovering the ball off a goal kick from St. Louis, seven LAFC players got involved inside their opponent’s half of the field. Backheels by Timothy Tillman and Olivier Giroud kept the action alive, and it was the French striker’s touch that gave Mateusz Bogusz space to find Bouanga on the other side of the field.

For Giroud, who celebrated his 38th birthday on Monday, the goal contribution was his second assist in as many games, as he also helped Bouanga with a touch in their last match.

The clean sheet was the fourth time in four meetings with St. Louis (7-12-13, 34 points) that LAFC earned a clean sheet. The visitors took seven shots, all blocked, giving Hugo Lloris a save-less shutout, his 11th of the season.

LAFC put six of its 20 shots on target, forcing Ben Lundt, starting in place of All-Star goalkeeper Roman Burki, to make five saves.

Retaining its second-place position, LAFC (16-8-7, 55 points) is two points ahead of Real Salt Lake (14-7-11) and Seattle (15-9-8) with a game in hand. The first-place Galaxy (18-7-7, 61 points) also won on Wednesday, leaving LAFC six points out of the Western Conference top seed with three games remaining in the regular season. LAFC has a game in hand on the Galaxy.

More to come on this story.