LOS ANGELES – A result that seemed inevitable took no time to be cemented as such, as LAFC scored twice in the opening half hour, ultimately dispatching Vancouver 3-0, 6-0 on aggregate Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League.
A penalty from Carlos Vela in the 8th minute calmed any holdover angst from the Round of 16, when the team had its sole loss of the season amid an aggregate win. He found the back of the net again 23 minutes later, and a double-doink goal from just outside the box put a bow on a dominant quarterfinal showing.
The victory sends the Black and Gold on to the semifinals of the CCL for the second time in the last four years – more than any other team from MLS.
"Our objective was to advance to the next round,” Steve Cherundolo said. “We're happy with that. I'm also happy and pleased with the performance, especially over two legs. Last round, we achieved great performance in leg one, leg two was so so, but this round two strong performances. I'm very pleased with that."
Silencing the doubters
Entering Tuesday night, six of LAFC’s last seven goals had been scored by Denis Bouanga, and he recorded the assist on the only other. Of the 18 goals this team has scored in 2023, he’d registered a goal contribution on 14 of them.
The individual brilliance of Bouanga has been coupled with a lack of end product from Vela and Cifuentes – LAFC’s two leading goal contributors from a season ago. Vela just couldn’t seem to find joy in front of goal, while Cifuentes had been struggling with sickness coming out of the international break.
The year is still young, and there are any number of explanations for each of the pair’s struggles – if you’d even elevate the concern to that level – of late. Nonetheless, some have raised questions about Vela’s impending decline and Cifuentes’ place in this Starting XI, but those were answered emphatically last night.
“This was a satisfying win,” Cifuentes said. “We are going through a good moment. We need to keep going and stay concentrated.”
For Vela, his moment had been long overdue. He’s been by far the leader on this team in expected, racking up nearly 0.7 per 90 minutes. Yet, in over 400 minutes this season, it’d only amounted to a single goal in each competition.
It took Bouanga’s speed drawing a penalty to eventually kick it off, but last night was finally Vela’s mean ascension. He stepped to the penalty area to take the resulting spot kick, and he buried it in the top right corner of the goal.
In the 31st minute, Illie Sánchez played a perfect ball over the top of the defense for Vela running in on goal. He chested it down and slotted it home to double LAFC’s lead on the night and put them five clear on aggregate.
Cifuentes got his breakthrough in the 65th minute on the sixth and final exclamation point goal of this quarterfinal tie for LAFC.
He received a pass from Bouanga at the edge of the box, opening up to his right before beating his defender on a cutback to his left. He fired a strike at the near post – which it hit – then shot over to the far post – which it also hit – before nestling into the goal.
“I was going to shoot with my right foot,” Cifuentes said. “And when I moved my head, I saw two Whitecaps players coming, so I thought if I shot with my right foot it was going to be blocked, so I then decided to shoot with my left foot.”
Cifuentes finished third for LAFC in goal contributions a season ago, and for as slow of a start as it feels he’s gotten off to, he’s only one off his G+A pace from last year.
Doing everything right
“As far as I know,” Cherundolo said, “in this game, the recipe to success is to defend well and, at moments, be effective in front of goal.”
It’s such a reductive way to describe the push and pull of a soccer game, but that’s how simple Cherundolo’s side has made it look over the last two weeks. Over its last three games, following an uncharacteristic scoreless draw against Colorado, LAFC has not allowed a single goal while pouring in nine on the other end.
Tuesday night, that came to the tune of six-save clean sheet from John McCarthy – his highest save total of the season. In front of him, Aaron Long made his sixth start of the season at center back, with the return leg against Alajuelense the only one in which LAFC conceded.
Even outside that stretch, the Black and Gold have only allowed multiple goals one time this season, and that was in the season opener against Portland on Mar. 4. Going the other way, LAFC has scored more than once in all but two games.
Outside of a few stretches of incohesive, disjointed attacking play, the goals have come fast and furious for LAFC this year. And, especially of late, it’s been quite the opposite for its opposition.
“This year,” Holingshead said, “we put an emphasis on not just relying on scoring two to three goals, but knowing that we can win games 1-0 if we need to. I think we've shown we've been a real hard team to score on this year and we want that to continue."
Over that stretch of four clean sheets in four games, LAFC has used two starting goalkeepers, four different starting center backs and a smattering of combinations in midfield and the attack. In spite of the turnover, playing 90 of those minutes at altitude and traveling north of the border midweek, they continue to score more and more goals while conceding less and less.
“So far,” Cherundolo said, “it’s been quite organic or homogenic with the group that we’ve all been kind of on the same page, and that’s really important. And we’d like to finish this week with a strong note.”
Start fast to take it easy
The nerves ended up nearly going the distance in the second leg of LAFC’s Round of 16 matchup with Alajuelense. Vela eventually settled what had risen to palpable levels of concern with a goal in the 83rd minute – extending the lead on aggregate to 4-2.
It was Vela again Tuesday night who calmed the fears of any comeback inside BMO Stadium, but it took him less than ten minutes to do so this time around against Vancouver.
With Vela’s second giving LAFC a five-goal advantage at halftime – and, as Stu Holden put it, turning the FS1 broadcast into a “podcast” – Cherundolo got to treat this game for exactly what it was.
His team was playing its third match in seven days with El Trafico looming on this weekend’s horizon and the meaning all but sapped out of the proceedings. He made all five subs before the 75th minute, including a pair of substitutions at the break, and even gave Giorgio Chiellini a full night off.
“Being able to do that against a really good Vancouver team, ending 6-0 on aggregate, is phenomenal,” LAFC defender Ryan Holingshead said. "We're really proud of that, and it allowed us to get some guys subbed out at halftime and get in some fresh legs. So all in all, exactly what we wanted to do."
You always hear the phrase “high-stress pitches” when it comes to baseball pitchers at the highest level, and that’s exactly what this team avoided Tuesday night. In the round of 16 against Alajuelense, not only were more minutes dispersed amongst fewer players, but the majority of those minutes were incredibly demanding ones.
Three straight 3-0 wins mean ample rest for a side deep enough to rotate both in the starting eleven and midgame while also decreasing the stress load of those who have to go the distance. That means, despite all the chaos of balancing league and CCL games, LAFC brings an incredibly well-rested side into Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday afternoon.
Not a single LAFC player will enter El Trafico having played the full 90 minutes in both of its last two games – including John McCarthy. Everyone’s healthy, everyone’s available and everyone’s rested. Just four more sleeps ‘til El Trafico.