The reigning Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup Champions are BACK! After a postponement due to uncharacteristic rain in their scheduled opener against rivals LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl, LAFC returned home to the newly renamed BMO Stadium to open their season against a revamped Portland Timbers side.
Before they could turn their attention to the game, LAFC had a pregame ring ceremony celebrating their MLS Cup Championship.
The club also revealed three brand new banners hanging from the east end rafters, marking their two Supporters’ Shield titles, Western Conference Championship, and MLS Cup. Mahala Opoku said the ceremony was a bit of extra motivation for the team and it showed.
LAFC started the game aggressively. This was something the team was looking to improve on coming into the season, said midfielder Kellyn Acosta.
He explained that the Black and Gold are confident in their ability to successfully adjust at halftime, after doing so often last season, but many times weren’t as happy with dull first halves.
Dull is certainly not an adjective that would be used to describe the first half against Timbers, however. Carlos Vela and Denis Bouanga had both taken shots within the first six minutes as LAFC jumped all over their opponent. They also found two goals before the half, a rarity for the reigning champs.
Giorgio Chiellini opened the scoring with his first LAFC goal, becoming the fifth oldest player in MLS history to score a goal.
The oldest to score their first in the league at 38 years, 202 days (If you’re wondering, Preki of Sporting Kansas City is the oldest goalscorer in MLS history at 42 years, 113 days).
More interestingly, Giorgio said he scored three of the exact same goals in training on Friday as LAFC prepared their set pieces for the match against Timbers.
It wasn’t pretty, it was bundled in, but the fact that it came from the training ground shows a pattern. It wasn’t a lucky goal. In Giorgio’s words, “As we train, we play. The coach continues to say this.”
The goal was special for another reason. The game (on March 4th) marked the 5-year anniversary of Chiellini’s friend and teammate Davide Astori tragically passing away at the age of 31.
The Italian international was found in his hotel room ahead of a Serie A match he was supposed to play for Fiorentina, with cardiac arrest as the cause. It was a devastating day that sent shockwaves throughout the football world. Giorgio, of course, thinks about him every year on this day.
Prior to the match, he posted a picture of the two together with the caption, “5 years since that damn day. Davide, always with us” while adding a heart emoji.
Then, when he scored his first LAFC goal, the opening goal of 2023, he thought of Davide immediately, saluting and pointing to the sky in celebration. “I don’t know if it’s a sign, or destiny, or nothing, but I would like to celebrate him and he is always in my mind.” Chiellini said postgame.
I don’t think there was a better way to celebrate him than scoring and winning man of the match in his honor.
LAFC ended up stretching their lead to three. Mahala drew a penalty that Vela would end up burying for 2-0, followed by Vela assisting Mahala to make It 3-0 on either side of halftime.
Those two were the stars of the show along with Chiellini, as both first-half goals came from corners. Chiellini’s opener was a recycled corner while Mahala drew a penalty directly from a Bingham save on another LAFC corner.
Combined with the previously mentioned pattern of replicating training set pieces in games, this was an exceptional sign of the threat LAFC is likely to pose in this department.
After Mamadou “Mbacke” Fall went on loan to Valencia in La Liga early last season, the Black and Gold’s set-piece threat level continued to drop.
That is until the MLS Cup playoffs when the team used set-piece goals to propel them to the title, including the infamous late equalizer in the MLS Cup Final from Gareth Bale.
Head Coach Steve Cherundolo asserted that his team knows how to exploit opponents from set pieces. If they are able to continue to do so, it will make the defending champions all the more difficult to beat. It won’t hurt in the many tournament competitions the Angelinos are scheduled to compete in either.
As mentioned, Carlos Vela and Mahala Opoku tallied goal contributions to extend the LAFC lead early into the second half, but it was Jose Cifuentes who created the goal.
Pressing in combination with the front line, Cifu was able to catch Timbers Captain Diego Chara in possession, forcing a turnover that immediately allowed Bouanga to quickly feed Vela as he drove toward the goal.
It was the just reward of a smothering press and counter-press from LAFC throughout the match. Conceding the majority of possession, as the Black and Gold did against Portland, feeds into this pressing style.
Under Bob Bradley, the club had a possession-based philosophy, building out of the back, and creating opportunities by overloading your opponent. While Steve Cherundolo enjoys having the ability to play this way if need be, he doesn’t prefer it.
The style began to switch last season, with LAFC playing with possession at times and out of possession at others. I expect this shift in style to be fully completed in 2023.
After an hour the game felt dead and buried, with new Portland Timbers $10m DP Evander being neutralized by Ilie Sanchez. Three subs for Portland gave them energy, resulting in a response from Evander, who found his first Timbers goal to spoil the clean sheet.
It was a consolation goal until Cristhian Paredes bundled in a second with six minutes remaining to set up a grandstand finale.
Cherundolo attributed the lackluster finish to a lack of rhythm and perhaps fitness rather than complacency, though it will certainly be an area of focus going forward.
A late Portland corner made for drama but the defending champions held on to remain perfect in home openers. Six years of existence. Six home opener wins.
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