Denis Bouanga finally slays the Columbus Crew in his best LAFC performance | OneFootball

We're only halfway through LAFC's round-of-16 series in the Concacaf Champions Cup against the Columbus Crew. But Tuesday night felt ... different. And in the words of Phil Connors on the morning of February 3, 1993: "anything different is good."

The Black-and-Gold romped their way to a 3-0 win in Leg 1 of the aggregate-goals series, setting themselves up fabulously to progress past the Crew if they can do so much as score one goal in their return leg in Columbus next week.

And Denis Bouanga, who was on the 2022 MLS Cup-winning team but had not yet become the devastating attacking force he turned into in 2023 and 2024, finally had a masterclass performance against the one team he hadn't really been able to solve.

It wasn't that Bouanga had been bad in three previous games against Wilfried Nancy's charges, all of which were losses and two of which were cup final defeats. But he was far from transformative, scoring only once -- a late consolation tally in the Crew's 2023 MLS Cup triumph -- and offering only sporadic threat, not the relentless menace that has terrorized most other MLS clubs he's faced.

This time was different, with Bouanga providing two of the game's three brilliant, decisive moments that were a perfect showcase for his dual offensive and defensive talents.

On the first, he lulled reigning MLS Defender of the Year Steven Moreira into a false sense of security, then more or less robbed him blind before rounding the flailing Patrick Schulte and converting into an open goal.

On the second, it was that devastating change of pace that made defenders back off him on the left side of the penalty area, allowing him to measure an absolutely world-class chip that took paint off the underside of the crossbar on its way to giving the hosts a 2-0 lead.

Only some one-on-one heroics from Schulte kept Bouanga from a hat trick. And you could even argue that Bouanga's in-swinging corner to the near post helped set up Nathan Ordaz's belter of a volley for LAFC's third, even if it took a deflection to arrive at the substitute's foot.

Yes, this Columbus side no longer carries Cucho Hernandez on its roster. But it still entered this encounter with an unblemished early league record and, and with free rent inside the heads of nearly LAFC supporter (not to mention likely several players.)

That should no longer be the case heading into the return leg, where one mroe LAFC goal would mean Columbus requires a winning margin of four-plus to emerge victorious. And it was all on the moments Bouanga conjured almost out of the air, in what has to be the signature performance of his Black-and-Gold career.