Steve Cherundolo keeps LAFC rolling as Austin FC comes to town
As head coach of the Los Angeles Football Club, the unassuming and pragmatic Steve Cherundolo keeps fielding winning teams.
Cherundolo’s next Major League Soccer regular-season victory will be his 25th. If he secures it within the club’s next six league games, the 44-year-old American coach would be the quickest to reach that mark, excluding the league’s shootout era that ended in 1999.
“I am positive that if you ask Steve about this statistic he wouldn’t know about it,” said midfielder Ilie Sanchez, who signed with LAFC as a free agent shortly after Cherundolo was named Bob Bradley’s successor. “That’s something I think that’s one of the keys of why he has been successful since Day One. That’s one of the keys of why he will continue to be successful.”
Proving Sanchez’s point, Cherundolo was, in fact, unaware of the feat before being asked about it prior to LAFC’s draw at Colorado last weekend, which put his MLS regular-season record at 24-9-6.
“We love winning games,” the second-year coach said. “For me personally as well, I love winning games. I’m not too fond of records, either for the team or personal records.”
Since taking the job, Cherundolo defined “success” as maximizing players’ potential. He noted that LAFC’s 3-0-2 start is a result of getting the most out of the roster.
“That is something we try to achieve daily,” he said. “And it’s asking a lot of the players, but I don’t think we’re asking too much because we are not asking for them to do anything they cannot do. We ask them to perform 100% pretty much daily.
“The expectations of this club are high, as they should be because we have good players. I think our mindset and the organization is built for sustained success.”
Following a dominant nonleague win at Vancouver on Wednesday that put LAFC in position to advance to the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals, the Black & Gold host the only team it lost to twice last year.
Cherundolo disregarded both 2022 regular-season defeats to Austin FC, choosing instead to rewatch and learn lessons from his side’s Western Conference final demolition of the Texans that earned them a spot in the MLS Cup final.
While LAFC has maintained a high level of play and is among a trio of unbeaten teams in MLS, Austin (2-2-1, 5 points) is dropping points late in games after challenging Cherundolo’s side for the Supporters’ Shield last season.
Taking on the defending MLS champions following a bye week, Austin, losers in six of its last seven away matches, will attempt to engineer LAFC’s third loss in the past 26 matches at BMO Stadium. That would require holding down a squad that creates the best goal-scoring chances in the league in the final quarter-hour as Cherundolo pulls the strings from the coach’s box.
“He manages himself, his life, his job, the group in a natural way,” Sanchez said. “Everything seems to be regular in our everyday that it creates this strength within the team. You don’t feel any pressure. All you feel is confidence coming from the bench. And I think that’s a very, very smart way to manage a group like the one we have in LAFC.”
Austin FC at LAFC
When: 4:55 p.m. Saturday
Where: BMO Stadium, Los Angeles
TV/Radio: FOX, MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, FOX Deportes/710 AM, ESPN LA App, 980 AM