LAFC suffers first loss this season at San Jose

SAN JOSE-- Cristian Espinoza scored two goals, the second coming on a late penalty kick, and the San Jose Earthquakes handed defending-champion LAFC its very first loss of the season with a 2-1 success on Saturday night.

A red-hot Espinoza scored eight minutes into the match to give San Jose (5-3-3) a 1-0 lead. Espinoza took passes from Jamiro Monteiro and Jeremy Ebobisse and scored his seventh objective of the season.

Dénis Bouanga pulled LAFC (5-1-3) even in the 30th minute when he scored unassisted for his league-high-tying eighth goal of the season-- signing up with the Seattle Sounders' Jordan Morris and Espinoza in the race for the Golden Boot.

Espinoza's eighth objective came on a penalty kick in the 83rd minute.

The Earthquakes beat LAFC for a fifth straight time in your home after losing the first 2 conferences by a combined 9-3 rating. San Jose is the very first host team to beat LAFC 5 straight times. The Earthquakes have permitted just 3 goals in publishing a 5-0-1 record in the house to start the season. San Jose has actually won 12 of its last 19 home matches after going 3-8-8 in their previous 19.

LAFC lost on the roadway for the very first time in 10 matches dating to last season and consisting of the playoffs.

LAFC got in have fun with 18 points through its first 8 matches, the very best start by a safeguarding champ in league history.

LAFC outshot San Jose 17-9 with a 7-3 benefit in shots on target.

JT Marcinkowski conserved 6 shots for San Jose. John McCarthy had one conserve for LAFC.

LAFC takes a trip to play Real Salt Lake on Saturday. San Jose takes a trip to play the LA Galaxy on Sunday.