Houston Dynamo at LAFC: Highlights, stats, and quotes
(image via Houston Dynamo FC)
The Houston Dynamo picked up their seventh road win of the season Saturday night, beating LAFC 2-0 in Southern California.
MATCH SUMMARY
LAFC 0-2 Houston Dynamo FC
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Venue: BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, California
Referee: Armando Villarreal
Assistants: Brooke Mayo, Justin Howard
Fourth Official: JC Griggs
VAR: Younes Marrakchi
Attendance: 22,176
Weather: 75 degrees, clear skies
SCORING SUMMARY
HOU: Ezequiel Ponce (Erik Sviatchenko) 28’
HOU: Lawrence Ennali (Franco Escobar) 71’
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY
HOU: Micael (caution; foul) 33’
HOU: Griffin Dorsey (caution; foul) 34’
LAFC: Dénis Bouanga (caution; foul) 36’
HOU: Héctor Herrera (caution; foul) 49’
HOU: Ezequiel Ponce (caution; other) 53’
LAFC: Sergi Palencia (caution; foul) 55’
LINEUPS & STATS
LAFC: Hugo Lloris; Aaron Long, Maxime Chanot (Timothy Tillman 46’), Eddie Segura, Ryan Hollingshead, Lewis O'Brien (David Martinez 77’); Ilie Sánchez (Eduard Atuesta 46’), Sergi Palencia (Omar Campos 67’), Dénis Bouanga; Mateusz Bogusz, Cristian Olivera (Olivier Giroud 67’)
Unused Substitutes: Thomas Hasal, Érik Dueñas, Eduard Atuesta, Kei Kamara, Nathan Ordaz
Total shots: 14 (Mateusz Bogusz 4)
Shots on goal: 6 (three players tied with 2)
Fouls: 9 (Ryan Hollingshead and Lewis O’Brien 2)
Offside: 1 (Dénis Bouanga 1)
Corner kicks: 3
Saves: 4 (Hugo Lloris 4)
Houston Dynamo FC: Steve Clark; Franco Escobar, Micael, Erik Sviatchenko, Griffin Dorsey, Artur; Héctor Herrera, Ibrahim Aliyu (Lawrence Ennali 71’) (Latif Blessing 88’), Amine Bassi; Sebastian Kowalczyk (Adalberto Carrasquilla 70’), Ezequiel Ponce
Unused substitutes: Brad Smith, Ethan Bartlow, Sebastian Ferreira, Andrew Tarbell, Brooklyn Raines
Total shots: 16 (Ezequiel Ponce 5)
Shots on goal: 6 (Ezequiel Ponce 3)
Fouls: 14 (Ezequiel Ponce 5)
Offside: 2 (Erik Sviatchenko and Latif Blessing tied with 1)
Corner kicks: 5
Saves: 6 (Steve Clark 6)
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH BEN OLSEN
On being just the second team to win at BMO Stadium this season:
“There’s some belief when we come here, but I think we’ll see a different team next week. It’s a bit of a strange dynamic playing them back-to-back again. We’ll look at the film before the other match in Houston, but I’m proud of the guys because they had a good response after last week’s result. We played the first half at a really high level, and in the second half we had to grind at times, which happens here. Overall, we had some great performances tonight.”
On bouncing back after last week:
“Tonight was about our response from losing a home game last week. We are still fixing our home form because we want to win every time we are in our building at Shell Energy Stadium. We’ve had a road warrior mentality this season, and we have been able to pick up points. Some of our highest concentration and best responses have been on the road, which is a good quality. Tonight was a big win against a very good team.”
On Hector Herrera’s leadership:
“It’s been wonderful working with Hector. I love him, and having mutual respect for each other is a big starting point. He’s an incredible player that always performs at an elite level. The way he pulls strings for us is not something you can coach. The other veteran leaders on our squad rise up with him and their confidence grows. These guys really enjoy playing with him, and our core in the middle of the pitch was sharp tonight.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD EZEQUIEL PONCE (TRANSLATED FROM SPANISH):
On scoring his first MLS goal:
"I'm very happy with the team's victory, as well as with my individual performance because I was able to help the team. We earned three important points, and we played really well as a squad.”
On Houston’s success in big matches:
"Of course big matches require a little more attention, which in reality, it shouldn't be like that. That extra attention should be for every game. This is something we need to learn and get better at, but tonight we demonstrated that we are at the level of those big teams."
On how to build upon this result:
"We have to keep going in the same direction and keep working towards the coach's plan. Being together, like how we demonstrated tonight, shows that we can do great things. We're very happy with the hard work we put in and with the result, but we must keep going and repeat what we did tonight.”
On how the team is feeling together:
"We feel great. We're happy with the way we kept pushing today. We had fun playing together on the pitch, and I believe that showed in the result we had tonight."
