Laftc is the only MLS team to play in two Concacaf Champions League finals this century. It is also the MLS team to lose two finals from the Concacaf Champions League this century.
And this is where a lesson for the team resides, which is starting to play in the tournament for the third time on Tuesday, facing the rapids of Colorado during the opening of a two -leg eliminatory series in the suburbs of Denver. Forecasts require temperatures in the middle of adolescence with a chance of snow.
The second decisive game will be played on February 25 at BMO Stadium, the winner advancing the aggregated goals.
“We, as a club, will learn these experiences,” said the co-president and managing director of the LAFC John Thorrington Said about previous visits to his team in the match for the title of the most prestigious club tournament in Concacaf. “The bitterness of losing a final does not disappear until you have won one, which keeps us incredibly hungry.”
Lafc fell to Tigres In a final in a single match played in a bubble coche in 2020, so was swept away by León In a last last leg three seasons later. Mexico Liga MX teams won 18 of the last 19 -Concacaf tournaments, with only the victory of the Spenders of Seattle in 2022 interrupting this sequence.
“The lesson to be learned for all MLS clubs is that we must continue to grow”, coach Lafc Steve Cherundolo said. “Our lists must continue to grow and also to the quality of the quality of improving in order to start winning the trophy.
“Coming to the final is one thing. But raising trophies regularly is another.”
The Champions League, renowned for the Concacaf Champions Cup this season, is one of the rare prices that Lafc has not won since it entered the MLS eight years ago. Under Thorrington, the team won two shields, an MLS Cup and the US Open Cup. He also played in the League Cup final last year, losing against Columbus.
As a result, LaFC has an average of 48 games per season in the past three years, or more than one match per week. This puts a lot of pressure on a thin list, so to prepare for long races in several tournaments this season, Thorrington has built what he believes to be the strongest team to open a short history of LaFC, one that goes two deep at each position.
“We know that we have the Champions League. We know that we have a very busy start to the season compared to last year,” he said. “So our goal during the offseason was to become as deep and robust as possible to manage this start to the start of the season.”
This is a slight change in relation to the strategy that Thorrington has used in the past three years, when it has added players such as Olivier GiroudMarlon, Giorgio ChielliniGareth Bale and Denis Bouanga In the middle of the season. This winter, Thorrington has already signed the striker Jeremy Ebobisse as a free agent, negotiated against midfielder Mark Delgado, acquired the Ukrainian defender Artem Smolyakov and the Brazilian midfielder Igor Jesus on transfers and was in the process on Monday of the finishing of a talented agreement of the Turkish winger Cungiz.
However, the tight salary ceiling MLS also forced the Lafc to say goodbye to certain precious players, including the fields of land Ilie Sánchez, Lewis O'Brien and Eduard Atuesta, the defenders Omar Campos and Jesús Murillo, and the attackers Mateusz Bogusz and Cristian Olivera.
“The movements we have taken, the wage ceiling space that we have made available allowed us to create a stronger team,” said Thorrington.
The two games of the first -round Champions Cup will be sandwiched around the opening of the MLS of Lafc on Saturday against the Minnesota United. And if Lafc goes to the 16 -year -old ring of the Concacaf tournament, he will play more games from the Champions Cup than MLS matches in the first month of the regular season.
Cherundolo said it was a distraction for the team learned to ignore in his previous Concacaf tournaments.
“We are just focused on our next match and the next round. What comes after that, we will take care of that moment,” he said. “This approach seems to have been well in the past three years.
“We are fully aware of the season so that the season can look like if you reach the finals again and that we are ready for this. We will finish our list accordingly. “
