Denis Bouanga: Lafcs Motor pulls El Tráfico Spotlight

Greg Vanney made a calculated gambling on Wednesday evening and lost.

His La Galaxy runs three games in eight days, each point precious when you try to climb from the basement of the Western conference and to the Audi MLS Cup playoffs. However, the head coach saw the need to Mathias “Zanka” Jørgensen for Emiro Garcés, probably the top retail defender of his team, for visiting the mid-week in Austin FC in Dignity Health Sports Park, mindfulness of the preheating accumulation of Saturday, apple, against the season, the season, the season, the season, the season, the season, the season, the season regard.

“Emiro is currently on four yellow cards. It is a calculation with three games a week, because we also know that we are playing LAFC, and they have Denis \]Bouanga on the side you have to defend” [2-1 loss to ATX.

“Hoping that our two veteran center backs can hold the fort down in a game like tonight at home against a team that’s missing their primary forward, and we didn’t do it. So the calculation was wrong and that’s the facts.”

It’s an apt distillation of the power of Bouanga, a winger so consistently menacing, so devastating on the dribble that even bitter crosstown rivals feel compelled to adjust, even well in advance of gameday.

Vanney’s not the only coach in MLS facing this dilemma – with his tallies in the Black & Gold’s recent wins over Dallas and Minnesota, Bouanga has already reached double-digits in goals this year, just as he did in his other two full seasons in MLS – his instincts are well-founded. With eight goals in eight Tráfico appearances across all competitions, the French-Gabonese winger ranks as the third-leading scorer in the eight-year history of the rivalry, bested only by legends Carlos Vela (12 goals in 15 games) and Zlatan Ibrahimović (nine in six).

Few teams in the league are as dependent on a single player, especially considering LAFC’s defense-oriented game model, and nowhere more so than against their chief antagonists, when the spotlight burns brightest. With his blistering speed, trickery on the ball, relentless physicality and expertise in transition, Bouanga is a Galaxy killer, and the two sides’ ability to maximize or disrupt that track record figures to be a decisive factor in Saturday’s marquee clash.

“Denis remains an important part of our attack. One of the most dangerous players in the league,” said his coach, Steve Cherundolo, this week.

“He can beat you with physicality, he can beat you with his technique, whether that be on the dribble or as a pure finisher. So he has many tools to break defenses down, and we rely on him to do that here at LAFC.”

The younger of Los Angeles’ MLS clubs have been serial contenders since Bouanga arrived from Saint-Étienne in the summer of 2022, albeit with plenty of heartbreak at the final hurdle. The Black & Gold won a rare MLS Cup-Supporters’ Shield double a few months later, reached the Concacaf Champions Cup and MLS Cup finals in 2023, then won last year’s US Open Cup while also reaching the Leagues Cup final.

The highs and lows have been pronounced this year, too. Bouanga fired his side into the FIFA Club World Cup with a dramatic extra-time winner in the CWC play-in match vs. Club América in late May – “a $10 million goal,” as he put it afterwards in a playful nod to the event’s massive purse.

“For the team and everyone, I think it’s a huge moment. I think most of the players, and maybe even the club, won’t do this again in four years. For me, it’s a magical moment,” said Bouanga in French. “I think now we can say that we’re one of the best teams in the world, just by being part of this tournament.”

Yet he failed to convert a stoppage-time penalty kick in a 1-0 loss to Esperance Sportive de Tunis that eliminated the Angelenos from advancement out of the CWC’s group stage – all before rescuing some pride with a goal that delivered a 1-1 draw against Brazilian powerhouse Flamengo in their final fixture.

His teammates, however, will tell you he’s the same fierce competitor every single day, week in, week out – not just on matchday but on the training ground, where Bouanga is described as a voracious worker who hates the sound of the final whistle.

“We are playing every three days – it’s been fatiguing, it’s been tiring these last couple months, and he wants to train,” said fullback Sergi Palencia this week. “He wants to finish the training, and he’s shooting at the goalies, he wants to dribble, he wants to play small[-sided] Games. So he's crazy. He just wants to urge, play and enjoy, and we are so grateful that we have such players … We all have ups and downs. But because it is so important to us, we all see whether it is a little more or lower. “

As Bouanga says, LAFC – maybe more than ever now. Vela officially retired in May. The wing players Mateusz Bogusz and Cristian Olivera were moved to Cruz Azul or Grêmio. The six -month loan stay by Cengiz Auder from Fenerbahçe has not been expanded, and Olivier Giroud recently returned to France, his time in Los Angeles disappointing for all parties.

All attacking reinforcements in the window of this summer would be welcome, but you have to go down with Bouanga's skills, and Cherundolo points out that the broken Achilles, the captain Aaron only under the rest of the season, is the top priority of the club in this department.

“His season? It is always up and down for attackers,” said the coach of his star wing player. “When you come up with the goal board. If you don't do it, you are below. We try to see the work in between. And it has been very consistent for me in the past three years. So I tend to see attackers not only because of their shape and production. I look at the entire package and so it was quite consistent for me.”

The young, built -in, local Nathan Ordaz has made noticeable progress this year, while Cherundolo and the club's technical staff hope that the arrival of loans, Javairô Dilrosun, can continue to do a share of creative stress. This is undoubtedly the Bouanga team, and the Angelenos agree. They consider it your responsibility to disturb the tailor -made game plans.

“They say heights and depths, but his work rate, his runs, his efforts, his goal, to play, score, to help, it is always the same,” said Bouanga Palencia. “Our team depends on him. We all know that. Everyone has to do a little more to support him, for example. Now, Nathan, Java, are doing well in the last games and helps him a little more; Ryan [Hollingshead] He also overlapped him – all teams, they mark Denis with two players.

“Now we have to be able to give him a little more [space] have his actions, have his game. But I would always say he's the same. He helps us so much. “

Hollingshead, Lafc's familiar left -handed, nodded next to Palencia during media availability.

“Nobody, nobody in the league becomes double and triple teams like this type,” said the 12-year-old MLS veteran. “Every time he touches the ball, each team throws two or three boys to defend him. There is no player in the league who sees this kind of attention, and so that he does what he does, even with this attention is crazy.”

Three goals and two templates in the four league games since the end of the CWC adventure indicate that Bouanga quickly turned the site.

He was recorded in the MLS All-Star squad last month, his third honor, and the league is represented in the All-Star Skills Challenge on Tuesday, the AT&T with 85 career goals for LAFC in 135 games in all competitions (93 goals in 186 games) soon exceeded the club's leading goal scorer and probably at a significantly faster pace.

In the foreseeable future, he will remain a nodular problem for the solution of Vanney and nowhere else than El Tráfico.

“We have to be able to have the right boys and the right players to manage transitions. Try to slow him down or keep him outside,” said the Galaxy coach before the first season of the first season, won by a penalty from Bouanga.

“It is easier said than done.”