LAFC is the only MLS team to play in two CONCACAF Champions League finals this century. It is also the only MLS team to lose two CONCACAF Champions League finals this century.
And therein lies a lesson for the team, which begins play in the tournament for a third time Tuesday, facing the Colorado Rapids in the opener of a two-leg first-round playoff in suburban Denver. The forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-teens with a chance of snow.
The second and deciding game will be played Feb. 25 at BMO Stadium, with the winner advancing on aggregate goals.
“We as a club will learn from those experiences,” LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington said of his team’s previous visits to the title game of CONCACAF’s most prestigious club tournament. “The bitterness of losing a final doesn’t go away until you actually win one, so that keeps us incredibly hungry.”
LAFC fell to Tigres in a single-game final played in a COVID bubble in 2020, then was swept by León in a two-leg final three seasons later. Teams from Mexico’s Liga MX have won 18 of the last 19 CONCACAF tournaments, with only the Seattle Sounders’ victory in 2022 interrupting that streak.
“The lesson to be learned for all MLS clubs is we need to continue to grow,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said. “Our rosters need to continue to grow and also quality-wise need to get better in order to start winning the trophy.
“Getting to the final is one thing. But actually raising trophies regularly is another.”
The Champions League, renamed the CONCACAF Champions Cup this season, is one of the few prizes LAFC hasn’t won since entering MLS eight years ago. Under Thorrington the team has won two Supporters’ Shields, an MLS Cup and the U.S. Open Cup. It also played in the Leagues Cup final last year, losing to Columbus.
As a result, LAFC has averaged 48 games a season over the last three years, or more than a match a week. That puts a lot of strain on a thin roster so to prepare for long runs in multiple tournaments again this season, Thorrington has built what he believes is the strongest team to open a season in LAFC’s short history, one that goes two deep at every position.
“We know we have Champions League. We know we have a really busy start to the season relative to last year,” he said. “So our objective in the offseason was to get as deep and robust as possible to manage that early season load.”
That’s a slight change from the strategy Thorrington has used the last three years, when he added players such as Olivier Giroud, Marlon, Giorgio Chiellini, Gareth Bale and Denis Bouanga in the middle of season. Already this winter Thorrington has signed forward Jeremy Ebobisse as a free agent, traded for midfielder Mark Delgado, acquired Ukrainian defender Artem Smolyakov and Brazilian midfielder Igor Jesus on transfers and was in the process Monday of finalizing a deal for talented Turkish winger Cengiz Under on loan.
However the tight MLS salary cap also forced LAFC to say goodbye to some valuable players, among them midfielders Ilie Sánchez, Lewis O’Brien and Eduard Atuesta, defenders Omar Campos and Jesús Murillo, and attackers Mateusz Bogusz and Cristian Olivera.
“The moves we’ve made, the salary cap space we’ve made available, have allowed us to create a stronger team,” Thorrington said.
The two first-round Champions Cup games will be sandwiched around LAFC’s MLS opener Saturday against Minnesota United. And if LAFC advances to the CONCACAF tournament’s round of 16, it will play more Champions Cup games than MLS games in the first month of the regular season.
Cherundolo said that’s a distraction to the team learned to ignore in its previous CONCACAF tournaments.
“We’re just focused on our next game and the next round. What comes after that we’ll deal with then,” he said. “That approach seems to have been fine over the last three years.
“We are fully aware of what the season could look like if you reach finals again and we’re prepared for that. We will finalize our roster accordingly.”
