Facing a star-studded lineup with a variety of offensive pieces, Philadelphia Union’s Olivier Mbiazo turned in one of this best performances of 2023 and earned the praise of his head coach as a result on Wednesday night.
“Bouanga and Vela had some rotation because they are just so fluid in their attack, to deal with those guys the way he did shows that he can be a top defender not only in our league but anywhere,” Curtin said during his postgame press conference from Subaru Park.
Mbaizo’s strong play came with the right back making his return to the Starting XI after missing the Union’s last two league contests with a hamstring issue. The Union defense clearly had LAFC frustrated with leading scorer Denis Bouanaga limited to only three shots across the entire night while Carlos Vela was unable to get a single shot off.
One of the Cameroonian’s biggest moments on the defensive side came in the second half as the Boys in Blue were pushing for the opening goal. With a corner kick in front of the rowdy River End supporters, LAFC turned a clearance into an attacking chance. The ball fell to Vela who led a one man attack down the middle of the pitch and toward the Union’s defensive third. Mbaizo made the full field recovery run and timed a tackle with the forward atop the Union’s box to put an end to any chance before it could become dangerous.
Curtin said the performance continued a strong trend that he’s seen from the 25-year-old but he now the challenge is to constantly have great displays game in and game out.
“Olivier has had a lot of 10 out of 10 games this year defensively and [Wednesday] was one of them but he needs to eliminate the 4/5 out of 10 too to be up there,” Curtin said. “He has it in him and his skillset is real high quality and like I said I think he can play in France but it is a matter of doing it every day. Each year he has gotten better and tonight was a great performance.”
