At the Whistle: LAFC 2, Austin FC 1

In the opening match of their best-of-three 2025 MLS playoff series, Austin FC gave up an own goal and an inevitable Denis Bouanga-engineered goal to lose 2-1 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

The first moment of Son Hueng-Min to Bouanga terror came in the 6th minute, when Son led Bouanga in with a pass and Jon Gallagher broke up what MLS classified as LAFC's first shot of the match (even though it seemed Gallagher headed it off before it technically was a shot).

Bouanga then made himself a bit of a main character in the 10th minute, going down in the box for being in the vicinity of Oleksandr Svatok, which actually got some penalty consideration, but really deserved a yellow for what was clearly a dive, as Svatok didn't make contact at all.

But in the 20th minute, Hollingshead took in a Bouanga pass, slipped past Ilie Sánchez, and then bounced an off-target shot off Brendan Hines-Ike's foot to grab the early lead.

Son and Bouanga had another terrifying counter in the 43rd, with Brad Stuver palming away Bouanga's shot to keep the lead at one.

Austin's first shot came in first-half stoppage time, with Gallagher getting on the end of a Mikkel Desler cross and heading it wide.

In the 56th minute, Verde engineered one of its best chances of the night, which still felt short, with a Guilherme Biro blocked shot in front of goal seguing into an off-target Myrto Uzuni shot. Though neither of those were a shot on goal, the sequence did bring Austin's shot total from one to three.

Then, Verde was able to create a moment of chaos, starting with a Dani Pereira run into the box, which somehow turned into:

• A mishandled pass into Uzuni;
• an outlet pass to Osman Bukari;
• a dish off to Desler at the top of the box;
• a looped cross into the center of the box that somehow found Uzuni;
• a pass to Owen Wolff three feet to his left;
• a Wolff pass to Gallagher four feet to his left; and
• a shot past an ill-advisedly sliding-to-his-far-post Hugo Lloris.

Following that magic, Hollingshead nearly legitimately got a goal on a 68th-minute corner kick, but Stuver palmed away a shot that definitely had goal-scoring intentions. Then, in the 73rd, Bouanga nearly had a goal he could call his own.

Pereira led a 77th-minute charge with promise, followed by a Bouanga-charged counter that had even more promise, forcing Stuver into a dramatic would-be save on a ball that went over the bar.

But then, a moment later, Bouanga – led in by Son – hit a shot that bounced off a sliding Austin defender, to a graicous Nathan Ordaz, waiting at the far post to tap in the deflected shot, to retake the lead.

Austin FC head coach and white sweatshirt model Nico Estévez put on CJ Fodrey late to try to engineer an equalizer. Fodrey had a chance to take part in the 89th, taking a ball in the box and dishing it off to Uzuni — but Uzuni, continuing a night of relative anonymity, hit a weak dribbler to Lloris to squash one of the last legitimate chances Verde had.

Verde got one last gasp corner kick attempt which went for naught, bringing the season down to a home playoff match on Sunday night.

Best Verde moment (that wasn’t a goal)

Let us laud Desler crosses. The one to Gallagher in first-half stoppage time was very nearly a goal at a point in which it didn't appear Verde would be scoring one, and his cross leading to a goal felt like a very dig-deep moment for a team that doesn't seize many of those moments.

Worst Verde moment (that wasn't a goal allowed)

Here's a thing I hate, which seems to be a hallmark of the Premier League's lesser teams. When you're a defender who is beat on a good offensive play resulting in a goal, you put up a hand to helpfully signal to the ref that the player that beat you was offside — indeed, it's a chump move that is basically an admission of guilt.

It's noteworthy (to me, at least) that Hines-Ike did the offside hand up after he poked Hollingshead's speculative ball into the goalmouth past his own goalkeeper.

One thing you might have missed

Check out the replay on the Bouanga dive to see how egregious it was. (Look around the 10:15 mark of the match to see the play, and then again around 10:45, because the review took that long.)

One nerdy tidbit

Weirdly, at halftime, Austin had a 3:2 possession advantage but was outshot 6-1 (with LAFC scoring half its two shots on goal).

Where this fits into the season's narrative

Though Austin FC losing here isn't a surprise — after all, seven of the eight lower seeds went on the road and lost the first match in their best-of-three series — the loss leaves the team just 90 minutes from playoff elimination. However, those 90 minutes are in front of loud Q2 Stadium fans.

A question we have heading into the press conference

Austin FC held the majority of the possession, yet was outshot by a 3:1 margin. Was possession the plan? And why was there such a shot imbalance if the plan was to keep most of the ball?

Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.