It seemed to take forever, but Los Angeles FC got there in the end — no, not their arrival to MLS in 2018, nor Sunday’s debut of Banc of California Stadium following a six-game road trip to start their expansion season.
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The first goal. The first eruption to celebrate the first goal. The first win. The first three points.
For 92 minutes, Sunday’s clash with the Seattle Sounders felt destined for an anticlimactic ending: neither side threatened the other too terribly much, and 0-0 seemed a foregone conclusion. In truth, the severely shorthanded Sounders were the better of the two sides, perhaps the nerves and expectations of the big day were a bit much for LAFC.
Then, in the third minute of second-half stoppage time, it happened. Laurent Ciman laced a 30-yard free kick around a four-man wall and into the typically reliable, waiting arms of Stefan Frei. Only this time, Frei produced a spectacular howler.
The moment @LAFC have been waiting for.@LaurentCiman23 scores the first home goal in #LAFC history. #LAFCvSEA https://t.co/n4uuprPh49
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 30, 2018
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The victory sends LAFC second in the Western Conference, just two points behind Sporting Kansas City (and with two games in hand), and gives Bob Bradley’s side a three-game winning streak as they look ahead to the rest of their four-game home stand to begin life at Banc of California Stadium.
