When the defender Christie Pearce roamed the background of the national female football team, she lived with a simple adage.
“If we are scoring, we could win,” she said. “If they never mark, we cannot lose.”
For the most part that worked, the United States losing only 20 times in the 311 games that Pearce has played, more than half of them ending with clean sheets.
Pearce's philosophy is now a Laftc seems to have adopted. In four of the five games that the team has played this season, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris did not concede a goal. Lafc won the four.
The last victory occurred on Tuesday, Denis Bouanga marking twice in a dominant and decisive 3-0 victory Above the Columbus crew during the first stage of a tour of the 16 playoffs of the CONCACAF champions cut at the BMO Stadium. The second leg and deciding will take place on March 11 in Columbus with the winner advancing on the aggregated goals.
Tuesday’s victory in the most complete performance of the LAFC season was the first in four games with Columbus since Wilfried Nancy resumed the crew three years ago. Two of these defeats occurred in the final, the 2023 MLS Cup final and the final of the Leagues Cup last summer.
Although Lafc was solid on both sides of the ball in his short story, he mainly won with attack, producing three MLS score champions during his first six seasons. He never scored less than 53 goals in a full season.
But after a winter in which the team lost three of the four top scorers in last season, replacing them with three defenders and a midfielder, the coach of the LAFC, Steve Cherundolo, asked his club to play in defense first. And it worked. Not only does Lafc abandon little goals, but it does not give up blows, With Lloris needing to make only six stops combined in his four victories to launder.
Asked what has changed since last season, Cherundolo smiled.
“I had more gray hair,” he said before becoming serious. “I haven't changed, they are the players. It is their effort. This is one of the most working teams in the league, and you have to go beyond them if you want to beat them. And we did it.
“It is therefore an effort and then follow the rules. The guys were very disciplined – technically quite disciplined – more than 90 minutes. It is a powerful combination. If you have hard -working players, players who understand things to do and not to defend and to our Directors of Lafc, you will have a difficult team to beat. Certainly not to concede many shots to the goal is a plus. I have nothing against the continuation of this path. But at one point, it will not be like this. »»
Columbus gave a single shot on Tuesday, the white sheet overlooking Lloris 17 in all competitions since his arrival at Lafc last season. He also ran his sequence aimlessly at 370 minutes. Lloris equaled the MLS record with a sequence of five games aimed last season.
But if Lafc conceded few goals, he also scored some of his own, with his first three victories on 1-0 scores, corresponding to the number of 1-0 victories from all last season.
“This is one of the things we highlight this offseason and for sure this pre-season. We want to start being a club that does not let go of the objectives, “said defender Ryan Hollingshead. “To return to the identity this year of our background line, keeping clean leaves. And you can see it the start of this season. If we have to win the 1-0 games, we must be ready to do so. And we have. We have proven that we can. This must be part of the DNA of this team, and not counting on three, four goals per game. »»
Hollingshead credited Cherundolo, a World Cup defender in his play days, for the change of accent.
“You can see his defensive discipline coming into play,” he said. “He just has such an eye for the defensive form, for the way we play as four rear, a rear five. It is impossible for him not to microchip things the right way to keep these sheets clean.
“We know that we have the LAFC goal note capacity. And if we can now add this type of defensive force and consistency so as not to let the objectives enter, then we can match these two together. So maybe the pendulum was swinging a little on the own side. At one point, he will withdraw and the goals will start to come. »»
The goals started on Tuesday with Bouanga giving Lafc the only goal he would need in the 20thth Minute, removing the ball from the foot of the undecided defender, Andres Herrera, at the bottom of the Columbus, then by beating the crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte on a center of the box for his first goal of the year.
It was also the first goal that Lafc scored in the first half this season.
Bouanga doubled the advantage of 40 seconds in the second half, Curling a right shot on the left edge of the penalty zone in the lateral net with the distant post.
Bouanga was champion of LaFC score in each of the last two seasons, although he took an equally slow start last year, not having scored in his first four games before breaking the drought with a splint, just as he did on Tuesday.
“It was great to see Denis enjoy her football again. When he does this, then things click, “said Cherundolo. “Tonight he put a complete performance.”
Replacement Nathan Ordaz closed the scoring in 81st Minute, with the three goals corresponding to the total of the LAFC compared to the three previous victories combined. This also left Columbus with a massive hill to climb in the overall score of next week's revenge match.
If Lafc keeps his advance, he would probably face Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in the quarter -finals of the two leg tournament next month.
