LAFC savors win over Colorado, pushes for points amid tough slate

No club in MLS history has played more games during a two -year period that the 103 LAFC has played the last two seasons. It was an exhausting and relentless Slog who saw the team play a game every five days.

However, this can be just a warm -up for what the team could face during the rest of this season. The 3-0 victory on Wednesday against the Colorado Rapids in digital disadvantage, which managed a sequence of four games without victory throughout the competition, was the 28th LAFC match in less than five months. If that makes long races in the League Cup and the MLS Cup qualifiers, the team will play 29 times this season, with seven of these games in the next 26 days.

It is a tortuous schedule, especially in the middle of the summer. But it is also inevitable.

“This calendar is what it is. We cannot change this,” said coach Steve Cherundolo, who obtained goals from Denis Bouanga, Nathan Ordaz and the newcomer Javairo Dilrosun on Wednesday. “It is important not to lose moments; Moments meaning games you can win, moments also meaningful in each match. It is therefore important to play as effective as possible.

“This is our goal.”

Another objective would be to call for help, or at least a relief, which Lafc is also. Because if the calendar in advance seems intimidating, the team seems to have many resources to deal with it.

The departures of Olivier Giroud, who returned to France, and Cengiz Under, whose loan from the Turkish club Fenerbahce has expired, releases two spots of designated players and more than $ 2.6 million in salary before the summer transfer window, which opens in two weeks. And the LAFC of $ 10 million will receive for the FIFA Club World Cup gives the director general John Thorrington more money to finance the list upgrade.

“I don’t think there was a transfer window in which Lafc was not active,” said Cherundolo. “We always try to improve the team whenever possible. This is part of who we are and the way we do things.

“So, of course, expect exactly the same behavior of this window.”

Exactly what it would look like, Cherundolo was a question for Thorrington, who did not take it this week. But the needs of theFC are as obvious as they are abundant.

Nathan Ordaz de Lafc (27) famous after scoring a goal against Colorado Rapids at BMO Stadium on Wednesday.

(Shaun Clark / Getty Images)

Bouanga and Ordaz, who scored the first two goals on Wednesday, combined for 13 of the 33 goals from Lafc this season and the departures of Giroud and under rendering the offensive even more heavy. Keep Dilrosun, a former Dutch international on a short-term loan from Mexico America, could help distribute the scoring, but expect LaFC to add another striker in the transfer window all the same.

The loss of the central rear Marlon, whose contract expired nine days ago, also created a hole on the back line.

The time is essential because despite the victory over Colorado, which dropped a man in the sixth minute when the left back Jackson Travis drew a red card for the defender of the Sergi Palencia leak in the face, Lafc (8-5-5) is closer to the ninth and last place of the eliminatory series of the Western Conference than from the table to the table at 15 teams. However, the team congestion calendar means that it will play at least two more games than all the other teams in the conference the rest of the season, which is both a blessing and a curse.

It is a blessing because it gives the team two additional chances to catch up against the teams before them. But it is a curse in that it means that the team’s MLS calendar is the most difficult in the section.

“This is what I like,” said Bouanga, whose goal of the first half was his ninth of the season and the 50th of his MLS career, through an interpreter. “I like to play, play, play. When we train too much, it becomes tiring for me. ”

The crowded calendar is mainly the result of the LAFC participation in the Club World Cup, which forced four MLS games, including Wednesday’s match with Colorado, to be reprogrammed while adding four games without the calendar league. Then there is the next League Cup, which will force the LAFC to play at least three additional games and perhaps up to six.

Ordaz, whose goal at the start of the second half came from the rebound of a dilrosun shot, said it was important not to look too far.

“Just go there one day at a time,” he said. “I think we are all going to be important, the whole team. Everyone is ready and we will trust everyone. ”

His coach accepted.

“We have to do it step by step, which means game per game,” said Cherundolo.

“When you win matches, this is the ideal time to have a congested schedule because things flow and go in the right direction. It is therefore important to move us forward, roll the ball in the right direction.”

Lafc went in the opposite direction last month, winning only a draw in four games all competitions and going bankrupt three times. Wednesday’s victory, however, was the most unilateral of the team since a 4-0 victory against Seattle in mid-May. The team also obtained a big effort by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who recorded his sixth white sheet in 16 MLS games.

“There is no replacement for victories, and more specifically three points in the position in which we are,” said Cherundolo. “It was therefore very important, whatever it happened.”