LAFC win a point in scoreless draw at Houston

After a 2-0 defeat to the Houston Dynamo at BMO Stadium last Saturday, LAFC improved to win a point from the Dynamo after playing to a scoreless draw against them at Shell Stadium on Saturday, September 7.

LAFC were without Denis Bouanga (Gabon), Mateusz Bogusz (Poland), Omar Campos (Mexico U-23), Maxime Chanot (Luxembourg), David Martínez (Venezuela), and Cristian Olivera (Uruguay), who are with their national teams during the September FIFA International Break. 

But, rather than allowing the depleted starting lineup to hamper their style, Steve Cherundolo's crew reconfigured their formation to a 4-4-2 with Olivier Giroud and Kei Kamara starting as strikers while Timothy Tillman floated in and out of the midfield in a supportive role in their attack. Giroud, increasing his match fitness, played his first full 90 minutes since joining the club in August.

"Tillman is somebody who's always dangerous in the final third," Cherundolo explained. "He showed it in training and had good connection with the two tonight. The three of them didn't combine a whole lot. But Timmy performed well, as we expected, broke up a lot of defensive plays, plugged holes, made it difficult for Houston to combine in the middle, which they're good at. And I think we did a good job of negating that tonight or neutralizing it, which really kind of took the wind out of their sails. And offensively, it's one of those players who can give you some depth too, and he made some runs out on the flanks and in the channels that were important for us to get our lines forward."

LAFC (14W-6L-6D) are in second place in the Western Conference, with 48 points from 26 matches played. They face their Los Angeles rival, the first-placed LA Galaxy on September 14 at Dignity Health Sports Park in a mirror image of their previous El Tráfico on July 4th in which the Galaxy were in second place in the Western Conference while LAFC were in first.