Grimacing expressions appear as involuntary reflexes on the scorers’ faces when things don’t go as planned.

“It’s normal for a striker to be frustrated when you don’t score,” said Denis Bouanga, the man who scored 20 consecutive goals for the Los Angeles Football Club. “It’s the same for me.”

Bouanga didn’t exactly brighten up his arrival in the 2022 summer transfer window, taking six matches before scoring his first goal for LAFC.

Bouanga’s longest drought in black and gold ended with a winning goal in Portland that clinched the Supporters’ Shield. From that moment on, the Frenchman’s bouts of frustration became rare.

Since joining LAFC in August as the highest-paid player on the roster, another French striker, Olivier Giroud, is the club’s leader in that category.

After a productive season in Italy in which Giroud recorded 15 goals and eight assists in 35 games for AC Milan, France’s all-time leading scorer, 38, is off to a slower start than planned in America.

While considering leaving Europe for MLS, Giroud spoke with Galaxy legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic, his teammate at Milan, who told the 2018 World Cup winner that he “would appreciate a league for attackers because the teams do not play to maintain the result or defend. They play to score goals and to please the passionate supporters.

“It will be nice for me,” was the message Giroud heard.

Ibrahimovic scored two goals in less than 20 minutes in MLS debutleading the Galaxy to a comeback victory in the first “El Trafico” in 2018. In two seasons in MLS, the big Swede finished with 53 goals in 58 games.

So far, in 13 MLS appearances, including three playoff games, Giroud is goalless. After 1,015 minutes in all competitions, he has had seven shots on target in 23 attempts, one on target in his previous eight appearances.

“I was impressed by the intensity of the match,” Giroud said.

After the US Open Cup, Giroud’s goal total was unchanged, as was the frustration he displayed on the training pitch and in competition, where pained looks accompanied misses, missed shots and moments of missed connections with teammates.

“His ability to rebound and then get into the box and score goals is what we want,” said England midfielder Lewis O’Brien, who made his debut a game after Giroud and is quickly becoming a roster staple. “Sometimes I think we don’t play as much as we can. He obviously has different qualities than some of the players who have been here in recent years.

Amid his difficult period, Giroud still has three assists and two goals, first in LAFC’s unsuccessful League Cup final in Columbus end of August and a month later by winning the US Open Cup.

“Two goals in two finals,” Giroud said after scoring a simple cross in front of the net on September 25. “I hope I score more and more important goals for the team. That’s what matters.

Giroud’s opportunity to score “bigger goals” comes with the high stakes of the MLS Cup playoffs, which resume Saturday night at BMO Stadium. with a conference semifinal match against the Seattle Sounders.

Giroud started on the bench in the club’s last game, making six consecutive starts for head coach Steve Cherundolo. Instead, Giroud came on at halftime as LAFC changed formation and moved to beat the Vancouver Whitecaps in three games to advance past the first round, thus maintaining its bid for a third consecutive trip to the MLS Cup final and a third championship game this season.

Giroud can take comfort in the fact that, while things haven’t clicked, LAFC repeatedly finds ways to win without him on the scoresheet. In this sense, he triumphed over Ibrahimovic, who failed to reach the Galaxy final.

“I don’t have to explain anything to him,” Cherundolo said Thursday. “He’s seen every level of the sport and every level of highs and lows as well. The team’s work rate is always more important than scoring goals, from any striker. And then, depending on how many goals you score and how many goals you score, that ratio goes up and down. Direction can fluctuate for attackers. He is well aware of this and works every week, every day.

LAFC has always featured three strikers and wingers favored at center forwards to rack up big goal totals – leading Carlos Vela, Diego Rossi and Bouanga to win the Golden Boot in three of the last five seasons in MLS.

“Olivier helps a lot with his presence on the pitch,” Bouanga said. “He frees us, the wingers, by his presence and by bringing the defenders to him. I’m sure the goals will arrive very soon.

“Of course it’s disappointing for him, but we can help him.”