LAFC's title defense comes with something to prove
The last chance for the Los Angeles Football Club starts today.
Throughout a year that gave the defending MLS Cup champions six shots at competing for trophies, LAFC must repeat in the Major League Soccer postseason or walk away with nothing to show for its considerable yet ultimately disappointing efforts in 2023.
Having harped on remaining driven, improving and moving forward after winning the Supporters' Shield and league title last season, coming up short in the CONCACAF Champions League final and Campeones Cup, along with sacrificing the U.S. Open Cup and bowing out of the Leagues Cup in the quarterfinal round, has apparently not diminished LAFC's self-belief.
“I know our team is ready,” team captain Carlos Vela said Thursday. “Our team is really focused, really excited about winning the title. Because we had chances to win titles. We missed chances to win titles. When you have the playoffs as a last chance you have to bring everything. You have to be hungry to show we want to repeat the championship.
“We still trust we have the best team in the league.”
The rest of the way will go directly toward proving whether or not that is true.
A three-game opening round series against the sixth-seeded Vancouver Whitecaps, who in June won at BMO Stadium for the first time in eight tries, is the doorway to the knockout rounds and a return trip to the MLS Cup final.
Two of the three contests are scheduled for Los Angeles, and any match tied after 90 minutes will require penalties to determine a winner.
The Western Conference foes have already played four times this year, twice in Champions League to a 6-0 aggregate triumph for LAFC, and two league contests, including 1-1 on Decision Day in Vancouver.
The season-long encounter continues into their first postseason meeting, which could mean four consecutive games against the same team.
“I'd be lying if I said I was super excited about it, but all of us understood this competition going into the season,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “We accept the rules. There won't be any excuses if things don't go as planned.”
The Whitecaps are 1-5-2 all-time in the playoffs, averaging a goal a game, while losing their lone postseason contest under current coach Vanni Sartini, who described LAFC as the best team in North America when they met in the continental tournament this spring.
LAFC is 4-3 all-time in the postseason after winning a trio of knockout games a year ago.
A determined finish to the regular season — taking seven of a possible nine points while MLS MVP finalist Denis Bouanga nailed down the Golden Boot by scoring six goals over that stretch to close with 20 regular-season finishes and 33 overall — has a healthy and in-form LAFC looking more like the group Sartini complimented.
For a team that continues to express that the thing that matters most is not the opponent but how they themselves prepare and play, “the hunger and passion and the want to have more is there and it's prevalent every day in training when I speak to guys individually or as a group,” Cherundolo said.
“This group wants to win another title and you'll see answers this weekend and the weekends to follow.”