Bright sunshine and a herd of eager teammates welcomed five LAFC players back from international competition this week, as the Black & Gold continued preparing for Saturday’s Audi MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals matchup at BMO Stadium against the Seattle Sounders (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 710 AM ESPN LA, ESPN LA app, 980 AM La Mera Mera).
Returning to the LAFC Performance Center this week were Mateusz Bogusz (Poland), Denis Bouanga (Gabon), Kei Kamara (Sierra Leone), Cristian Olivera (Uruguay), and Nathan Ordaz (El Salvador), who participated in various matches over the last ten days in UEFA Nations League, Concacaf Nations League, AFCON (Africa Cup of Nations) Qualifying, and 2026 World Cup Qualifying.
Their travel was sandwiched between LAFC’s do-or-die Game 3 win over Vancouver in the playoffs’ first round and Saturday’s rematch of last year’s Western Conference Semifinal.
The result has been an uneven rhythm during the most high-stakes portion of LAFC’s 2024 campaign.
“I don't think any coach likes this window in the middle of playoffs,” said head coach Steve Cherundolo, “and that affects every team. It's just not ideal. We have a couple of guys who had some long travel. They're back, thankfully all safe and sound. Maybe they have some rhythm as far as games go, but certainly the travel is a beast for a lot of these guys and it's a lot to deal with … but this isn't our first window. We've done this many times and so we'll be prepared.”
Midfielder Lewis O’Brien, a veteran of England’s Premier League and League Championship competitions, added: “It's kind of crazy. The playoffs are longer than I've been used to … [In England] you play a team twice, home and away, then that's it. And you play the final if you get through and then that's the playoffs – done. But here it's quite elongated.”
“We are not used to having that long of a break between games,” said midfielder Timmy Tillman. “We just tried to keep the intensity high towards the end of last week. ... It's gonna be about fighting and mentality. That's what it's about on Saturday.”
“I feel like this is what everyone plays for,” O’Brien added. “They play for the big occasions, they play for the big games. Sometimes a Best-of-3 [series] can kind of get away from you … but now it's one game and you've got to leave everything out there because if you don't you end up going home.”
TO LIVE AND TRAIN IN LA
Cherundolo described the last two weeks at the LAFC Performance Center as containing “a lot of training,” adding that he was pleasantly surprised by “how intense the training sessions were.”
“A professional level of intensity is always there,” Cherundolo said. “The intensity I'm talking about is a little bit more that comes around a couple days before big games, and certainly comes around during playoff time and at the end of the season … The intensity level, in times where we asked them just to have some fun, was higher than we expected, which is great.”
ONE YEAR SINCE 1-NIL
A year ago this week, LAFC left frigid Seattle with a 1-0 win in the 2023 Western Conference Semifinal. It was one of the more memorable results in club history in that it snapped the Sounders’ 19-game home unbeaten streak in MLS playoff matches, and pushed the Black & Gold to its second straight MLS Cup Final appearance.
The landscape has changed since then, particularly on LAFC’s side of the pitch. Only seven of LAFC’s 11 starters that day are still with the club, including Carlos Vela, who recently rejoined the Black & Gold and played just four minutes in LAFC’s Round One series against Vancouver.
Nine of the 20 players on LAFC’s active roster that day (Nov. 26, 2023) are currently elsewhere.
Gone from that day’s starting eleven are Giorgio Chiellini (retired), Kellyn Acosta (Chicago Fire), Diego Palacios (Corinthians/Brasil), and Maxime Crépeau (Portland Timbers).
Bogusz, Sergi Palencia, and Aaron Long came on as substitutes in that match and have been regular starters throughout 2024.
Seattle, meanwhile, has not seen nearly the same turnover. Every starter and nearly every sub from last November’s match is still part of the Rave Green, although midfielders Leo Chu and Josh Atencio, who started the ’23 Conference Semifinal, have missed time recently due to injury.
Seattle’s biggest addition has been an internal one: Paul Rothrock was elevated from Seattle’s MLS NEXT Pro side this year and has been a revelation, starting 13 of his 25 regular-season appearances and going 70-plus minutes in each of Seattle’s Round One wins over Houston.
(Gone from Seattle’s 2023 roster is Nico Lodeiro, who was a late sub in last year’s Conference Semifinal and has been pivotal in Orlando City’s playoff run this year.)
Regarding LAFC’s growth since that historic road win, Tillman said: “I think everyone is one year older, everyone has more experience now. We learned a lot as a team. We had a big change in the roster, but we grew together. And now we're just fighting for each other.”
Cherundolo added: “It's my job as well as management's job to make sure that [roster changes] are taken care of in the right manner, but also to make sure that we all understand we have a mission here, we have a journey together and we have a job to do …
“We were really stretched thin in a lot of games [in 2024], playing this impossible schedule, and we ended up coming out on top and winning a trophy in the Open Cup. We were able to do that because players put their individual situations aside for the good of the group. As long as I'm here that will always be the message.”
Defender Eddie Segura, who has been part of the Black & Gold since 2018, said in Spanish: “It is always a little difficult when players leave, when others arrive, and it is the job of the coaching staff to be able to fit everyone together towards the same idea. This team is very united, the team is pushing in the same direction. When that happens, whoever comes in can fit in easily.”
PICK YOUR POISON
Another difference between the LAFCs of 2023 and 2024 is a heightened ability to control matches and gain results through mid-match personnel shifts and tactical realignments.
“What I really like about this group is we have different ways to break teams down, depending on who we line up and how we work our bench and how we sub players in,” Cherundolo said. “There are many different ways we can beat teams and many different tools … [We] are a very well rounded roster [with] a lot of potential starters on the bench, which always helps.”
The club’s matchday flexibility, Tillman said, “helps us by being unpredictable. If you don't know who starts then it's going to be tough to say, ‘OK, they're going to be doing that, they're going to be doing this.’ But also just if we need something—some freshness from the bench, we know we have a good roster, a deep roster, and everyone can help.”
“Sometimes it comes from us on the pitch,” O’Brien added, “but sometimes it does come from the coaches. When you're on the field, it's easier to feel the situation and feel the scenarios, and we can make changes ourselves. We won't change formation, but we may change positions on the pitch …
“Having the flexibility to go from a 5-3-2 to a 4-3-3, it definitely gives the opposition a problem because they have to analyze both formations.”
The one constant within last year’s conference champions and this year’s top-seeded side, Segura said, has been the motivation provided by the club’s supporters. “They always support us,” Segura said in Spanish. “We always feel their affection, their encouragement. They are the extra player for us. We are always very happy to have them singing, giving us that energy. And what’s better than being able to celebrate at the end of the game, all together, and continue preparing for what is to come?”
LAFC hosts Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday, November 23, at 7:30 p.m. PT at BMO Stadium in the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals. The match will be broadcast on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, 710 AM ESPN LA, the ESPN LA app, and 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish).
