Chucky Lozano, Anders Dreyer score, ‘kill the party’ as visiting SDFC beats LAFC

LOS ANGELES — In its quest to make history Sunday night, San Diego FC found itself in the middle of a party.

Son Heung-min, the former Tottenham Hotspur star and captain of South Korea’s national team, made his home debut for the Los Angeles Football Club in front of an exuberant sellout crowd of 22,937, a record at BMO Stadium that included about 600 SDFC fans. South Korean flags and Son’s jerseys from his national team, current club and previous club peppered the stands.

But in their quest to make history, the guests turned into party poopers.

Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and Anders Dreyer enabled SDFC to overcome an early deficit and earn a 2-1 victory that allowed the club to move five points ahead of second-place Minnesota United two weeks before their pivotal matchup at Snapdragon Stadium.

“It was nice to go here and kill the party,” Dreyer said. “We knew it would be a tough game. But we’re not afraid of playing anywhere.”

SDFC (17-7-5) used its seventh consecutive road victory to tie St. Louis City FC’s record for most wins by an expansion team in its debut season. The club also positioned itself one point behind LAFC’s mark for most points by a first-year expansion team, 57 in 2018, and drew within one point of the Philadelphia Union for the Supporters’ Shield.

The chrome and azul’s latest win away from Mission Valley enabled them to share the league record for most successive road victories since the shootout era with CF Montreal and FC Cincinnati.

Dreyer broke a 1-1 tie in the 66th minute with his 14th goal by taking advantage of an inexperienced defense. Jeppe Tverskov sent a long ball between LAFC defenders Eddie Segura and Artem Smolyakov to Dreyer who raced to the penalty area.

When Segura and Smolyakov caught Dreyer, the Dane stopped, took two long touches to his left and fired a 9-yard shot that deflectedoff Smolyakov and into the goal.

“In the first 20 minutes of the second half, we completely killed them,” Dreyer said. “We talked before the game about hitting it between the center back and the full back, and (Tverskov) did it perfectly.

“When I wanted to shoot with the right foot, I had the feeling that (Smolyakov) was a little bit too close to me. So I made a cut, saw another defender, made another cut and then put it in the goal.”

Smolyakov helped constitute a patchwork backline. Two of LAFC’S regular defensive starters, Ryan Hollingshead and Aaron Long, were unavailable because of a yellow-card suspension and a torn Achilles, respectively. A third starter, midfielder Igor Jesus, is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

SDFC then needed critical defensive plays to maintain its lead.

In the 74th minute, Christopher McVey tackled Son’s shot away from behind as the Korean was about to strike from 14 yards. In the 77th, McVey slide-tackled a pass in the penalty area intended for Son. The right post wore chrome and azul one minute later when it stopped Son’s line-drive shot. Then in the 82nd, goalkeeper C.J. dos Santos stopped Denis Bouanga on a breakaway at point-blank range.

During second-half stoppage time, which lasted nine minutes, dos Santos dived to his right to catch Son’s 18-yard shot, then Tverskov blocked Son’s 17-yard shot.

“It’s not surprising because that’s how we train each and every day,” dos Santos said about SDFC’s defensive heroics. “These are the habits that we build in training competing against ourselves and against each other. So we take pride in making the big plays and everything like that. But it’s not just the back line. It’s not just myself. It’s from the back up to the front. The front guys make big plays on the press with and without the ball. They just dictate everything.”

LAFC (11-7-8) took early control by dictating the pace. The hosts applied high pressure and man-to-man marking to pin San Diego in its own end, allowing Bouanga to score the game’s first goal and his 15th of the year in the 15th minute.

David Martinez’s pass from the right wing found Bouanga, who let the ball bounce in the penalty area before chipping a half-volley from 11 yards over the right hand of dos Santos.

Bouanga almost extended the margin to 2-0 in the 26th minute but after Sergi Palencia sent a long ball to him from the right side, Bouanga’s 4-yard shot bounced past the far post.

Seven minutes later, Lozano tied the score with his ninth goal. Dreyer’s high midfield pass freed the Mexican international, who beat defender Nkosi Tafari, another emergency defender, took two touches to his right and fired a 16-yard shot that froze goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. Dreyer earned his league-leading 18th assist.

“It’s a massive goal,” SDFC coach Mikey Veras said. “All of a sudden, now we start building momentum. But on top of that, it’s an absolute golazo. So when it’s a goal like that, it counts a little bit extra because we got the quality humming on top of the ideas.”

Dos Santos kept the score tied with two big plays in the 45th minute. He punched away teammate Manu Duah’s deflection of Bouanga’s blocked 19-yard shot, then lunged to his right to deflect Son’s 18-yard line drive with both hands.

— JOSEPH D’HIPPOLITO