LAFC has chance to regroup against Houston
There is no getting around how poorly the Los Angeles Football Club played in its 4-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo on Saturday night in Texas.
“We’re not thinking as a team,” midfielder Ilie Sanchez said afterward. “We’re thinking as individuals on the field and that is where the disconnection is coming from.”
For the purpose of winning soccer matches, nothing derails a group quite like not playing as one. A lack of cohesion from back to front, from the middle out, from the sideline to the byline, was in full, debilitating effect at Shell Energy Stadium.
“When we don’t follow our principles and all have different ideas of what to do on the field, that’s how it looks like,” Sanchez said. “We need to learn from that. It cannot happen again.”
Wednesday night at BMO Stadium, LAFC has an immediate opportunity to regroup against the Dynamo, which has been excellent at home (6-1-1) and abysmal (0-6-2) on the road.
Returning to Exposition Park is typically enough to fix what ails LAFC. Through five-plus seasons, totaling 86 home games, the club is tied with Philadelphia for the most points (187) while suffering an MLS-low nine losses.
LAFC has struggled even on Christmas Tree Lane for nearly a month, however, doubling its longest goal drought in front of its fans after three consecutive clean sheets.
If LAFC manages to score on Wednesday, the team will do so without MVP candidate Denis Bouanga and midfielder Jose Cifuentes, both of whom are unavailable due to national team duty.
Coach Steve Cherundolo, clearly bothered by LAFC’s meandering effort in Houston, showed more displeasure in his post-match comments over the weekend than he has at any time since taking the job in January of last year.
For the usually composed, even-keeled coach and his players it’s been almost all good and some great with LAFC, namely the club’s second Supporters’ Shield and an MLS Cup championship in 2022.
Last year, Cherundolo’s group also hit the skids late in the summer, yet the team worked through troubles to become MLS champions.
Not yet at the midway point of the 2023 league schedule, LAFC (7-2-5, 26 points) remains in a solid spot despite its setbacks.
Third in the Western Conference with two games in hand on first-place St. Louis (29 points), and four games on Seattle (28 points), Cherundolo said, “it’s going to be difficult to keep up a high level of performance physically and subjectively with our play throughout the entire season – I’d say nearly impossible. Moments like the other night are hopefully few and far between, but I think we have to accept that in a schedule like this.”
Struggling to impact matches going back to the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final, LAFC captain Carlos Vela picked up where Sanchez left off.
“You have to go in the same direction if you want to win games,” Vela said Tuesday. “When everybody maybe loses some confidence because we are coming from a final loss, sometimes people start to lose confidence or think about other situations. You lose the focus of what you are doing in your role.
“The first and the easiest thing to do is to run more. Help our teammates. And after that, the quality is still there. The talent is still there. We still have good players and can do good things, but when we work as a team and run together, fight for each other, fight the same way it is the only way.”
HOUSTON AT LAFC
When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: BMO Stadium
TV/Radio: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass/710 AM, 980 AM