Son Heung-min scored his first hat trick in Major League Soccer with a sliding finish in the 82nd minute, sealing Los Angeles FC’s 4-1 victory over Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night.
Los Angeles (13-7-8) was coming off a 4-2 victory over San Jose on Saturday when Denis Bouanga recorded his third career hat trick and Heung-min added the other goal in the opening minute, News.Az reports, citing CBS News.
Salt Lake (10-15-4) has lost four of its last five matches.
Heung-min, who joining LAFC a month ago from the English Premier League, scored on a breakaway in the third minute for a 1-0 lead. He was left wide open in the middle of the field in the 16th and scored from distance to make it 2-0.
Heung-min ran with Bouanga from midfield on a 2-on-1 breakaway and scored an easy tap-in for a 3-1 advantage. Bouanga scored six minutes later on another breakaway to break a tie with league legend Carlos Vela for the most goals in club history with 94.
RSL missed a penalty kick in the 45th when Rwan Cruz's attempt hit off the right post and went across the goal line to goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who had gone the other way. Teenager Zavier Gozo scored on a beautiful bicycle click for RSL in the 76th.
