Channel 1 Los Angeles
10/27/2021
Brian Rodriguez, Latif Blessing and Cristian Arango all scored for LAFC while goalkeeper Jamal Blackman made five saves to register his first shutout since joining the club last month. With the win, LAFC is now 12-12-8 on the season for 44 points. The club now holds the seventh and final playoff position in the MLS Western Conference with two games remaining in the regular season.
LAFC went in front in the 21st minute when a Raheem Edwards through ball found Brian Rodriguez racing into the box. The Uruguayan took one touch before slotting his shot under Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei, giving the home side a 1-0 lead.
Latif Blessing doubled LAFC’s lead just before the halftime break when Edwards found Kim Moon-Hwan at the corner of the penalty are. Moon’s cross deflected off the back of Cristian Arango and into the path of Blessing who beat Frei from close range to send his team into the half with a 2-0 advantage.
As the second half began, Seattle pushed for a goal to get back into the game, and it nearly had one less than a minute after the restart only for Nouhou’s close range shot carom off the crossbar. Five minutes later it was 3-0 for LAFC with Arango scoing his team-best 13th goal of the season. The attack began with Diego Palacios winning the ball in midfield and quickly playing it forward to Blessing who then connected with Arango. The Colombian hit a long range shot that deflected off a Sounders defender and beat Frei to make the score 3-0. Arango now has seven goals in the last four games, helping LAFC take 10 of a possible 12 points in that time.
Late in the second half, the capacity crowd of 22,030 helped welcome captain Carlos Vela back into action. Vela had missed the last 11 games as the result of hamstring injury.
Prior to the game, LAFC and Ford Motor Company, the club’s official Domestic Automobile Partner surprised season ticket holder Shaun Park of Los Angeles by presenting him with a free two-year lease on a 2021 Ford Bronco Sport SUV.
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