LAFC looks to shake off ugly loss before facing Real Salt Lake
The team saw its 13-game unbeaten streak come to an end with a 5-1 home thrashing against Columbus and must regroup for a first-place showdown on Wednesday night.
First thing’s first: weather forecasts do not call for blizzards to blow through Southern California this week.
For the Los Angeles Football Club that’s welcome news as Real Salt Lake comes to town.
Taking place despite absurd, wintery conditions at America First Field in March, LAFC’s second game of the season featured the MLS debut off the bench of 18-year-old Venezuelan David Martínez. He had never seen snow before, let alone attempted to play soccer in it. What would have been an otherwise memorable day, Martínez said, “definitely” became the craziest moment of his young career.
For almost everyone else on the trip, it was a game worth forgetting.
Months after the 3-0 defeat in Utah, playing on grass rather than several inches of fresh powder should benefit Martínez and his teammates during a key conference showdown on Wednesday night at BMO Stadium – although that meant little in their last appearance, the club’s worst defeat at home, a 5-1 thrashing courtesy of the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew.
The demise of a club record 13-game unbeaten streak joined the list of LAFC’s amnesia-inducing outcomes in 2024, ranking alongside the trip to Salt Lake City in the spring and a misadventure at San Jose in May.
“To show up and have an off night, although it’s not unacceptable, it needs to be this mindset of push it aside, respond well,” LAFC defender Ryan Hollingshead said following the Columbus match.
Letting that one recede from their memory banks will require a quick shift in focus to RSL, which shouldn’t be difficult considering the two sides are tied with the Galaxy atop the Western Conference at 43 points.
Relieving a bit of the sting from Saturday for LAFC (13-5-4), both RSL (12-4-7) and the Galaxy (12-5-7) also stumbled over the weekend.
After losing 3-0 in Portland, RSL learned that the man driving its attack, league-leading goal scorer and former Black & Gold favorite Cristian “Chicho” Arango, had been suspended for four matches, including the All-Star game, for violating the league’s anti-harassment policy.
Implemented in February, the “goal of the new MLS-MLSPA Joint Anti-Discrimination Policy is to eliminate on-field racial and discriminatory incidents by deterring misconduct, achieving both discipline and accountability, and encouraging honesty, growth and education,” the document says.
Neither MLS nor RSL released additional details regarding Arango’s suspension, but the practical effect is that LAFC won’t have to account for the 29-year-old Colombian attacker, who, among his 17 goals and 11 assists, scored and assisted twice in March.
Colombian midfielder Andrés Gómez, the beneficiary of Arango’s snow day assists, will also miss the midweek match due to yellow card accumulation.
Combining for 48 goal contributions, Arango and Gómez are the highest-scoring duo in MLS. Their absences “certainly affects [RSL’s] offensive effectiveness and danger,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “They do a great job and are a very good team even without those two. But Chicho is a special player and Gómez has had a very good season.”
On the opposite end of the field, LAFC defenders Jesus Murillo and Sergi Palencia will miss the game after receiving red cards against the Crew. Center back Aaron Long is prepared to replace Murillo, Cherundolo said, and Omar Campos will slide in for Palencia, who has been one of LAFC’s most important performers this season.
Midfielder Timothy Tillman is back in the mix after sitting out against the Crew for earning too many yellow cards. And up top, forward Cristian Olivera is ready to contribute following his return from helping Uruguay to a third-place finish in Copa America.
REAL SALT LAKE AT LAFC
When: Wednesday, 7:45 p.m.
Where: BMO Stadium, Los Angeles
TV/Radio: FS1, Apple TV+ (Free)/710 AM, 980 AM