{"id":64459,"date":"2024-02-26T00:19:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T00:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/lloris-and-lafc-off-to-winning-start-to-new-mls-season-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-02-26T00:19:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T00:19:14","slug":"lloris-and-lafc-off-to-winning-start-to-new-mls-season-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/lloris-and-lafc-off-to-winning-start-to-new-mls-season-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Lloris and LAFC off to winning start to new MLS season | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nMIAMI:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former France captain Hugo Lloris enjoyed victory on his Major League Soccer<\/a> debut as Los Angeles FC defeated the Seattle Sounders 2-1 in their opening game of the season on Saturday.<\/p>\n

France’s 2018 World Cup winner Lloris made a key early save as the 2022 MLS Cup winners triumphed in a rematch of last year’s Western Conference semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Lloris, who moved to Los Angeles from Tottenham in December, was brought into action in just the third minute, producing a fine reflex save to deny Jordan Morris.<\/p>\n

French-born Gabon international Denis Bouanga, the league’s top scorer last season, was a constant threat to Seattle defenders, seeing a shot cleared off the line and then hitting the bar with a deflected effort.<\/p>\n

But Los Angeles got in front on the stroke of half-time when Mexican Omar Campos got to the byline and whipped in a cross that was expertly volleyed home by Timothy Tillman.<\/p>\n

Polish midfielder Mateusz Bogusz doubled the lead with a super strike into the top corner from the edge of the box on 55 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Sounders gave themselves a lifeline when Morris was ruled, after a VAR review, to have been brought down by Aaron Long. Argentine Pedro de la Vega, who had made his debut as a substitute just five minutes earlier, confidently slotted home the spot kick.<\/p>\n

LAFC<\/a> coach Steve Cherundolo said Lloris had clearly added his qualities and experience to the team, which lost Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini to retirement in the off-season.<\/p>\n

“He’s just kind of a steady rock for us, a sense of security. All the players feel it when he’s there, which is very important. His decision-making is going to make us a lot better and then he’s also somebody who can come up with a big save,” said the former US international.<\/p>\n

Lloris, who rarely featured in his last year at Tottenham, said he was still finding his feet.<\/p>\n

“We are still in the process of getting to know each other. But I feel good,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I know that physically I am not 100% yet and I need to get the rhythm of competition because it has been 10 months now.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on Saturday, reigning MLS champions Columbus Crew made a positive start to their title defence with a 1-0 win over Atlanta United.<\/p>\n

French coach Wilfried Nancy led the Crew to an MLS Cup triumph over LAFC in December and has kept his squad largely intact as it seeks a third title in five years.<\/p>\n

Hernandez fired the Crew ahead in the 27th minute after Diego Rossi got behind the Atlanta defence and fired over a low cross, which the striker buried with a right-foot drive.<\/p>\n

Former Aston Villa manager Dean Smith earned three points from his first match in charge of Charlotte thanks to a 1-0 win over New York City FC.<\/p>\n

Adilson Malanda nodded in the eighth-minute goal after Iuri Tavares’s glancing header from a corner had come down off the bar and although Kerwin Vargas missed a second-half penalty, Smith’s side held on for the win.<\/p>\n

Belgian Christian Benteke, the former Liverpool striker, scored a hat trick for D.C. United in a 3-1 victory over the New England Revolution.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Fire were poised for a surprise victory at Eastern Conference powerhouse Philadelphia before a stoppage-time header from Hungarian Daniel Gazdag earned the Union a 2-2 draw.<\/p>\n

A beautiful strike from outside the box from Brian Gutierrez had put Chicago ahead in the 39th minute.<\/p>\n

Mikael Uhre brought the Union level but Fabian Herbers’s close-range effort looked to have grabbed the win for Chicago before Gazdag headed in Jose Martinez’s cross near the death.<\/p>\n

Dante Sealy grabbed a stoppage-time winner as FC Dallas beat the San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 while Minnesota United pulled off a surprise 2-1 win at Austin.<\/p>\n

Minnesota are expected to announce Manchester United assistant Eric Ramsay as their new head coach next week to replace interim Cameron Knowles.<\/p>\n

The Houston Dynamo, last year’s US Open Cup winners, were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Sporting Kansas City.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI: Former France captain Hugo Lloris enjoyed victory on his Major League Soccer debut as Los Angeles FC defeated the Seattle Sounders 2-1 in their opening game of the season on Saturday. France’s 2018 World Cup winner Lloris made a key early save as the 2022 MLS Cup winners triumphed in a rematch of last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/lloris1708859859-0\/lloris1708859859-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t