The smile started small, but quickly rippled across Steven Moreira’s face as he stood pitchside at Lower.com Field last December, fielding questions from journalists the day before one of the biggest games of his life.
Asked how he'll cope with the menacing attack of LAFC, opponents of his Columbus Crew in the 2023 MLS Cup final, the center back immediately called out one danger man in particular.
“Yeah,” said Moreira, “especially Denis Bouanga. You kick him!”
If the French-Cabo Verdean defender actually landed any such blows on his friend as he went toe-to-toe with the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi winner, he got away with it. Moreira was whistled for nary a single foul throughout 90-plus minutes of a masterclass performance from him and his entire team that earned Columbus their third league title, and dethroned the reigning champs from Los Angeles.
“Moreira's ability to pocket Bouanga and still get forward as a right-sided center back/hybrid midfielder was remarkable,” wrote MLSsoccer.com’s Ben Wright in his player ratings, giving Moreira an 8.5/10 grade for being “nearly perfect defensively without sacrificing any effectiveness going forward.”
That said, Bouanga still scored, a 74th-minute conversion of his own rebound that cut the Crew’s 2-0 lead in half and set up a tense finish. It’s not often that a defender is so widely lauded even after his mark finds the net; such is the LAFC star’s quality that Moreira was seen to have fulfilled his assignment nonetheless.
Banter-filled battle
What didn’t show up on the ratings or stats sheets was the steady stream of good-natured chirping between them before and during the match.
“Before the game, we were talking. He said, 'OK, I'm gonna do this and that to you; me, I say the same.' He was going to score: ‘It’s gonna be hard for you, for sure we're gonna win.’ And he was confident, too!” recalled Moreira to MLSsoccer.com this week. “Honestly it was funny. During the game, when one time I win the ball, I said, ‘I told you, today you’re not going to pass me one time.’
“After the game,” he added, “I just talked to him a little bit. He was sad of course, but I knew that this season he was going to fight in this game.”
"This game" would be Saturday’s cup-final rematch between the two clubs at LAFC’s BMO Stadium, one of Matchday 26’s most-anticipated fixtures not only because of December’s proceedings, but the white-hot form both sides carry into the weekend (10:30 pm ET | Apple TV - Free). Amid the constellation of star names and key contributors, this left winger vs. right center back duel could well prove decisive again.
“I had very strong duels with Steven. He tried, and I tried, to do a lot of one-on-one, but he was also very disposed to go forward, and I felt that he had to follow the instructions to defend on me,” Bouanga told MLSsoccer.com in French this week. “With my game intelligence, I managed to pass him sometimes, and some other times he stopped me. It was 50/50. It’s going to be a great return game. A good revenge to take, for me or for them.”
"That's my brother"
Their faceoff in the championship bout was a memorable new chapter in a relationship that dates back nearly a decade, to when Moreira and Bouanga played together for FC Lorient in France’s Ligue 2, often partnering on the right flank for Les Merlus (The Hakes) during the 2017-18 season.
Back then, Moreira loved to range forward via overlaps off Bouanga’s shoulder, asking difficult questions of opposing defenses. That same swashbuckling mindset has made him such a unique weapon in Wilfried Nancy’s bold game model in Columbus.
“We were together all the time,” said Moreira. “I was playing right back and he was playing right winger so we combine a lot, enjoy a lot. That's my brother.
“[Either] you follow me or you have to follow Denis, so it will be hard to [defend].”
Bouanga finished as Lorient's second-leading scorer with nine goals and four assists, though despite possessing one of the division’s most prolific attacks, Les Merlus fell just three points short of the promotion playoff places.
“We had a very good team in Lorient,” said Bouanga. “We were not far from going up to Ligue 1, but the coach [Mickaël Landreau] made choices that changed the plans and we were not able to play again together."
The duo bonded on a personal level and kept in touch after parting ways the following summer, Bouanga to Nîmes and Moreira to Toulouse.
“For me, it was magical to play with Steven. We got along so well on and off the field,” said Bouanga. “He was an excellent player. He played on the right side, so sometimes I was going to the right so I could play more directly with him. When we won, we were celebrating together on the field, and outside it as well.
“It was a strong relationship and now that he’s in MLS, we write to each other more. It’s all this that makes him a really good friend.”
MLS reunion
Moreira, who signed with the Crew in August 2021, deserves a measure of credit for helping seal the deal that took Bouanga to Los Angeles a year later, a late-summer reinforcement who helped push LAFC over the top as they claimed an MLS Cup-Supporters’ Shield double.
“When I came here first, he asked me a lot about MLS and the first thing I say is like, 'I know your quality. I know you’ll have a lot of space here too, so for sure you're going to enjoy it a lot,'” said Moreira.
“[MLS] it’s more open than in Europe. So in Europe is more like tactical; here every team attacks, so it's better because me and Denis, we love to attack … I knew the quality of Denis and I tell him, 'You're going to really enjoy because the league is very, very good. You're going to feel surprised.'”
In one sense, he was paying Bouanga back for some sage advice of his own. After representing France at youth international level – including a runners-up finish at the 2013 UEFA U-19 European Championship alongside the likes of Adrien Rabiot and Anthony Martial – Moreira found himself on the outside looking in when it came to Les Bleus’ senior squad.
His Cape Verdean heritage gave him the opportunity to switch allegiance to the African island nation, but he admits to having had some nagging hesitance about diving into a new team and culture, and the long travel itineraries it would entail. So he reached out to Bouanga, who’d already made a similar move by joining the national team of Gabon, his father’s homeland.
“He talked to me about this because I was playing with the national team in France when I was young, and I do every step with France. So I was a little bit scared, I didn't know,” remembered Moreira. “He was going first, so he told me, like, ‘Oh, you have to go, it’s something very, very special and amazing.’ And so he was right.
“Like me, I was right about coming to MLS and he was right about going to the national team. So that's why I think he trusts me when I say, you can come here.”
Dual All-Stars
The two have clearly had this week’s match circled for some time. With Columbus traveling to California on Thursday, Moreira planned to spend time together with Bouanga and his wife and children in the leadup to the game. And this time the two will share another commonality: Now both are MLS All-Stars, with Bouanga earning a second consecutive nod and Moreira a first-time honoree for the midsummer showcase in Columbus later this month.
Bouanga is glad to see his friend gain that recognition, a chance for a wider audience to take notice of the unique role Moreira plays under Nancy as perhaps the league’s most attack-minded center back, always walking a tactical tightrope as he raids forward to create overloads in possession while still minding the danger of quick counterattacks in the opposite direction.
“He deserves to be in the All-Stars. He’s a very, very good defender,” said Bouanga. “I know that we see a lot about Cucho Hernández and Diego Rossi in Columbus, but a lot of players work hard in the shadows such as the captain, Darlington Nagbe, or Steven Moreira, who give that dynamic to Columbus. For me, it’s logical that he’s rewarded.
“It’s a great role he has. He can play center, he can play lateral. He has that intelligence of the game that allows him to anticipate the forward. He played in Europe, so he knows the French tactics that are a bit more advanced than here in the United States. He’s a player that can do anything, playing on the right side or in the center. He has no problem doing so and that’s what makes Columbus happy, I think.
"… It’s his personality. He was already like that in Lorient. He doesn’t like to lose, so he goes on the attack. And it’s great for a team to have a player like that.”
