LAFC’s goal: Repeat as MLS champions through experience and versatility
LAFC won everything there was to win in MLS last season, finishing with the best regular-season record to claim the Supporters’ Shield, then beating Philadelphia in an epic final to capture its first MLS Cup.
That leaves the team with just one possible encore for this season: do it all over again.
“The objective is to win. The objective is to be champion, get the most points possible,” captain Carlos Vela said in Spanish.
“When you win one, you feel how cool it is to win a championship,” he continued. “You want to win more. So we are preparing for that.”
LAFC is just the second team since 2011 to win the MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield in the same season. No club has won both in consecutive years. But LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said his championship team has improved since last fall.
“We are getting better,” he said. “Our training is getting better. We are refining our model, our scouting department, management. We are aligned with our academy. So a lot of ways we are improving.
“You have to define success. Success last season for us was maximizing the potential of the group, and we did that. The same goal applies for this year because it is a different group.”
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That new group was scheduled to open the new season Saturday, facing the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl in game that likely would have broken the MLS single-game attendance record of 74,479. On Friday, that game was postponed by the threat of inclement weather.
When LAFC finally does begin its season, it will do so with a lot of familiar faces. Nine of the 11 starters from November’s MLS Cup final are back, with forward Cristian Arango, the team’s leading scorer the last two seasons, the most notable absence.
That continuity already makes a step forward, said John Thorrington, the team’s general manager and co-president, since LAFC started last season with a first-year coach, a new staff and nine new players.
“The easy comparison is to talk about the team that stepped off the field as a champion and not think about where we were a year ago. And that’s actually the relevant comparison — where we were at the beginning of last season,” he said. “Last year our tactical approach was more one of ‘let’s see how the new coach [and] the new players settle in.’
“Where we are with the benefit of an additional year with some of our players, with the guys we added last summer, having them a full preseason with a coach and a staff that now has had a year of work with the players…we feel very good about the group that we have going into Saturday.”
Although Arango, transferred to Mexico’s Pachuca earlier this month as a casualty of the strict MLS salary cap, has left big boots to fill up front, LAFC will have a full season with designated player Denis Bouanga, who arrived from Saint-Etienne last summer to score the goal that clinched the Supporters’ Shield, then added two more in the playoffs. Behind him, Thorrington has added 20-year-old Croatian forward Stipe Biuk, who was signed under the league’s U-22 initiative.
The returning midfield of Kellyn Acosta, José Cifuentes and Ilie Sánchez may be the strongest in MLS while the addition of USMNT defender Aaron Long, the re-signing of Ryan Hollingshead and a full season from ageless veteran Giorgio Chiellini — all of whom have played multiple positions during their professional careers — gives LAFC a versatile backline. LAFC may even have improved at goalkeeper, a position of concern entering the winter after starter Maxime Crepeau broke his leg late in the MLS Cup. John McCarthy, who took over for Crepeau and made two saves in the penalty shootout to clinch the MLS Cup, will open as the starter backed by Eldin Jakupovic, who played six seasons in the English Premier League.
The added versatility will be critical because with an extended playoff format, the addition of the monthlong Leagues Cup tournament and the U.S. Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League, LAFC could play more than 60 games in about 42 weeks if they make deep runs in all four competitions.
“It’s going to become a matter of balancing priorities,” Thorrington said. “We want to win everything that we’re in but sometimes logic and reason must prevail. Given what happened with player contracts and where we were, I don’t think we have the depth that we had at the end of last year. So if you don’t have the squad depth, in terms of the number of players, you have to address it through versatility.”
Still the key performer for LAFC may once again be Cherundolo, the coach. Cherundolo, who won a record 21 regular-season games in his debut, had a Midas touch, with virtually every halftime adjustment.
Including the playoffs, LAFC outscored opponents 51-18 in the second half and 17 of the team’s 75 goals came from substitutes. Only one MLS team in the last 24 years has gotten more offensive production from its bench. Yet none of that will mean anything when LAFC lines up against the Galaxy to start the new season.
“There’s a reason why every season, the standings start at zero,” Cherundolo said. “We are in a different league and different rules and regulations than the rest of the world.”
“Honestly, it has zero bearing on this season for us,” he continued of the championship. “For me, I’ve already forgotten it.”
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Five LAFC players to watch in 2023
Carlos Vela: With LAFC, everything starts and stops with the captain. Since the team’s debut in 2018, LAFC is 46-12-17 in regular-season games in which Vela records a goal or assist. He came to MLS to win a title, an MVP award and break the single-season scoring record; he’s done all three.
Denis Bouanga: The Gabon international will be counted on to pick up much of the scoring slack left by the departure of Cristian Arango and he showed he’s up to that task in the preseason, scoring four times in LAFC’s final three games.
Ilie Sánchez: It’s not often that a defensive midfielder is a team’s most important player but that’s the case with Sánchez, 32, who led outfield players in starts and minutes, played every minute in the postseason and converted the penalty kick that gave LAFC its first MLS Cup. Want more proof? Including playoffs, LAFC lost just six of 36 games in which Sánchez played more than 25 minutes.
Ryan Hollingshead: Primarily an outside back, Hollingshead has played seven positions in his MLS career, which will come in handy since versatility will be key during a season with a record number of games. He also scored six goals last season, matching a career high and equaling the most by a defender.
Maxime Crepeau/John McCarthy: Crepeau had the third-best goals-against average (1.09) in MLS last season while posting a career-high nine shutouts before breaking his leg deep in extra time of the MLS Cup final. McCarthy came on to close out the win and was rewarded this season with the starting job while Crepeau rehabs. In a season in which depth will be key, having two starting keepers — backed by a third who played six seasons in the English Premier League — will give LAFC a huge advantage.
