​LOS ANGELES — LAFC spent most of Saturday night attacking the Portland Timbers. The Black & Gold moved the ball into dangerous areas, kept Portland pinned deep and repeatedly tested goalkeeper James Pantemis. The problem was what happened once those chances arrived.LAFC set a club record with 34 shots, including 21 in the first half alone, but needed Denis Bouanga’s 79th-minute equalizer to escape BMO Stadium with a 1-1 draw. For a team that had dropped its previous two matches, the performance offered plenty for Marc Dos Santos to build on. The result, however, left the coach and his players wondering how three points got away.“It’s hard to explain because the chances were many,” Dos Santos said. “If we win the game 4-1, it could have been a fair result.”Portland needed only four minutes to put LAFC in that position.Kristoffer Velde took advantage of a loose ball near midfield and raced into transition, finding David Da Costa between three defenders. Da Costa finished past Hugo Lloris before LAFC could recover, giving the Timbers an early lead and forcing the home side to chase the game for the next 75 minutes.David Da Costa bags his third of the season!@TimbersFC are ahead early.📺 Apple TV: https://t.co/VlqOr95LzUpic.twitter.com/6X2HpYsfmB— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 23, 2026Aaron Long acknowledged how much that goal changed the match.“When you give them that glimmer of hope, when they score first, and they can all taste three points or one point, their game plan changes,” Long said. “It makes it harder for us.”LAFC responded with pressure rather than panic. Mathieu Choinière nearly equalized with a clever individual effort that Pantemis pushed wide, while Yevhen Cheberko and Bouanga also had opportunities. Jacob Shaffelburg put a header just wide, and Pantemis repeatedly kept LAFC from turning its territorial advantage into a goal.The chances kept coming, but so did the missed opportunities.Choinière scuffed an attempt from the edge of the six-yard box. Shaffelburg later failed to connect cleanly with a Bouanga cross in front of goal. By halftime, LAFC had produced 21 shots and still had nothing to show for it.Pantemis finished with 10 saves, making the attacking performance even more difficult to evaluate. Dos Santos pointed to the 48 touches LAFC had in Portland’s half and the number of times his team reached the byline as evidence that the approach was working.The finishing simply did not follow.“We got to the byline a lot. We tried to break their block a lot and created chances, big ones,” Dos Santos said. “You have to use other solutions.”Bouanga eventually provided one.After a night in which the forward had already registered a career-high 12 shots, he collected a pass from Jude Terry, created enough space between two defenders and hammered a right-footed shot from outside the box past Pantemis in the 79th minute.A Bouanga Blast™️ @BouangaDenis brings us level 🚀 https://t.co/5tlWe7L