Good luck stopping LAFC nowadays.
The Black & Gold, after Saturday's 3-1 win at Orlando City SC, have won eight straight games across all competitions and six straight in the league. They're not planning to slow down any time soon, either.
"There’s a confidence that comes with winning games back to back to back," defender Ryan Hollingshead said postgame.
"We know when you’re in a moment like this, you have to keep your foot on the pedal, you have to keep going. You can’t relax and think things are going to come easily. Especially in an atmosphere like this, you have to come and just grind out a win and that’s exactly what we did today."
Yet again, LAFC's catalyst was Denis Bouanga. The reigning Golden Boot presented by Audi winner tallied 2g/1a, and fellow attacker Mateusz Bogusz scored for the third time in four games.
LAFC's front three got slightly reconfigured; Kei Kamara started while Cristian Olivera represents Uruguay at Copa América. Nonetheless, a simple truth bore fruit at INTER&Co Stadium.
"We know that our attackers are explosive and have the quality to punish you if you give us windows or space to run into," said head coach Steve Cherundolo.
Added Bogusz: "We suffered a lot in this game, waiting for our chance, and we used them."
Elsewhere, LAFC’s club-record shutout streak of 549 minutes in MLS play ended when Orlando attacker MartÃn Ojeda scored in the 69th minute. That moment nearly arrived in the first half, but Facundo Torres sent his penalty kick wide of Hugo Lloris' goal.
Amid those scares, Cherundolo saw positives.
"It takes a lot to score on us at the moment and we need to keep that going," said the former US international defender.
After their latest win, LAFC are third in MLS in points per game (1.94) and narrowly trail Western Conference leaders Real Salt Lake. With a game in hand, and this current trajectory, they certainly could soon leapfrog Cristian Arango & Co.
For now, it's all eyes focused on Wednesday's quick turnaround at Austin FC (8:30 pm ET | Apple TV - Free).
"Winning is contagious, winning is important, winning away from home is a lot of fun," Cherundolo said.
"Certainly wasn’t our prettiest game, but credit to Orlando. They played a hard match, an intense match, put us under immense pressure. We had solutions at times, but not all the time and had to absorb a lot of pressure tonight."
