Chris Aquino continued his torrid scoring form, adding two more goals to lead the Tacoma Defiance to a 2-1 win over LAFC2 on Friday. The Defiance have now gone 6-1-3 in their past 10 and have moved up to second in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division, one point behind Ventura County.
Highlights
Key performers
Chris Aquino: The 18-year-old is on quite a heater. With two more goals, Aquino now has 10 on the season, nine of which have come in his last eight appearances. His goals per 90 now sits at 1.17, easily the best in all of MLS Next Pro among players with at least 400 minutes. Not only is Aquino the youngest player in the history of the Sounders organization to score 10 in a single season, he’s the organization’s first to even reach 10 career goals while still a teenager (Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez scored his 10th goal shortly after turning 20). Aquino’s first goal came on what is becoming his signature move, as he floated into the box and hit Travian Sousa’s cross with his first touch. Aquino’s second goal came on a penalty after Snyder Brunell was taken down in the box. If there’s a knock on Aquino, it’s that his contributions are mostly contained to goal scoring. He doesn’t get on the ball quite enough to be a No. 10 and he’s not doing much defensively, but he’s also 18 and these are traits that can definitely be learned.
Snyder Brunell: The most remarkable thing about the 17-year-old is how mature his game is at such a young age. In recent months, the Sounders have allowed experienced central midfielders Faysal Bettache and Frank Daroma to leave in part to clear playing time for the likes of Aquino and Brunell. They’ve responded by raising their games. Brunell, in particular, has been asked to do a lot more and is consistently putting in result-carrying performances as the central midfield engine. In this one, he drew the penalty, completed 33 of 43 passes, won 5 of 8 duels, was credited with 11 defensive actions and was 2 of 2 on dribbles.
Jacob Castro: Shutouts aren’t really something the Defiance do, so it wasn’t entirely surprising when the Defiance conceded an 82nd-minute goal, at least in part because of a questionable play by Castro. The goalkeeper came out of his box to try to clear a ball over the top but his header was picked off by a LAFC2 player. Although Castro got back, he wasn’t completely settled when the shot came. Aside from that, though, this was a solid performance. He made six saves and endured an onslaught that featured 26 shots but remained calm, completing 68% of his passes. Tests like this are good for him.
Stats
MATCH SUMMARY
Tacoma Defiance 2 – LAFC2 1
Friday, August 30, 2024
Venue: Titan Stadium
Referee: Corbyn May
Assistants: Salma Perez, Alexander Arita
Fourth official: Adrian J. Gonzalez
Weather: 86 degrees and sunny
SCORING SUMMARY
TAC – Chris Aquino (Travian Sousa) 20’
TAC – Chris Aquino (penalty) 53’
LAFC – Adrian Wibowo (Nicklaus Sullivan) 82’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
LAFC – Luis Müller (caution) 1’
TAC – Antino Lopez (caution) 33’
LAFC – Christian Diaz (caution) 64’
LAFC – Diego Rosales (caution) 70’
TAC – Travian Sousa (caution) 76’
LINEUPS & STATS
Tacoma Defiance – Jacob Castro; Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, Antino Lopez – Captain, Stuart Hawkins, Travian Sousa; Snyder Brunell (Omar Hassan 75’), Sota Kitahara; Chris Aquino (Burke Fahling 75’), Blake Bowen, Yu Tsukanome (Owen O’Malley 81’); Gio Miglietti (Osaze De Rosario 60’)
Substitutes not used: Etienne Veillard, Braudílio Rodrigues, Lars Helleren, Shaun Brun
Total shots: 10
Shots on goal: 3
Fouls: 12
Offside: 1
Corner-kicks: 1
Saves: 6
LAFC2 – David Ochoa; Luca Bombino, Diego Rosales, Christian Diaz, Edward Berumen (Bryan Moyado 46’); Decarlo Guerra (Matias Quiros 80’), Matt Evans (Javier Hernandez 69’), Christopher Jaime (Dempsey Resich 89’); Luis Müller (Charles Rosenthal 70’), Nicklaus Sullivan, Adrian Wibowo
Substitutes not used: Bajung Darboe, Adrian Aguilar, Dylan Auffret, David Soto
Total shots: 26
Shots on goal: 7
Fouls: 16
Offside: 1
Corner-kicks: 7
Saves: 1
