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Carlos Vela, LAFC have their work cut out for them against León
If defending MLS Cup champion LAFC is to become the second American team in as many years to win the CONCACAF title, avoiding a loss in Wednesday's series opening match at Mexican side León (10 p.m. ET, FS1) could be crucial.
Carlos Vela & Co. earned the right to host Sunday's decisive second game in Los Angeles. LAFC still must make sure that the score of the total goals home-and-home is close enough after the first 90-minute leg Wednesday that the regional crown remains within reach. Escaping León with at least a tie (or at worst one-goal defeat) is therefore essential, but it won't be easy. The 31,000-seat Estadio León is considered one of the most intimidating trips not just in Liga MX, but in the entire North American, Central American and Caribbean region.
"We'll expect crazy fans, crazy conditions," LAFC midfielder Timothy Tillman, a veteran of the German Bundesliga who nonetheless called this CONCACAF Champions League final the biggest moment of his career. "But we're ready."
LAFC wasn't quite ready three years ago, when they squandered a late lead and lost a one-off, neutral site finale against Mexico's Tigres. Yet the lessons learned during that run – not to mention during last year's MLS Cup and Supporters Shield double – could prove to be invaluable this time around.
In 2020, LAFC looked cooked after losing 2-0 in León in the first match of a two-game set, only to survive and advance to the quarterfinals with a 3-0 victory at home. Vela, the club's captain and one of just three holdovers since then (forward Kwadwo Opoku and defender Mohamed Traore are the others), knows his team can't count on another epic comeback.
An attacking force in MLS play, LAFC is averaging 1.92 goals per game – better than all but two of the 29 teams in the American/Canadian top division. But they'll have to focus first on being stingy defensively Wednesday.
"The ones who were there, we know how hard it was to play in León," Vela told reporters on Monday shortly before LAFC jumped on a charter flight south. "That game, we could've lost 3- or 4-0, which would've made it impossible to come back.
"We have to be smart," Vela added. "Don't make small mistakes that can cost a lot and [make it] impossible to finish our goal in LA."
As the hosts, León has every incentive to adopt an aggressive posture from the start in the hopes of building an insurmountable lead. LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo prepared his players for the expected onslaught.
"It's a very good team in transition," LAFC defender Aaron Long said. "They're very dangerous in the attack."
But this isn't the same LAFC side that just missed out on a trip to the FIFA Club World Cup three years ago. It's a better, deeper, proven squad that already has silverware in its trophy case. Star striker Dénis Bouanga, the Champions League's leading scorer, is in blistering form. The visitors arrived in León in midseason shape; the match there in 2020 took place before the MLS campaign had even kicked off, leaving LAFC at a distinct physical disadvantage against a squad already that had already played six weeks' worth of competitive matches.
Still, even a goalscorer as prolific as Bouanga knows the game plan. "What we want to do is not to lose the game," he said of Wednesday's tilt.
There's a lot on the line, both for LAFC and MLS. Consecutive CONCACAF titles would prove that last year's triumph by the Seattle Sounders that gave MLS its first Champions League victory and snapped more than two decades of regional domination by Mexican clubs in the process wasn't a fluke or an aberration. On the eve of the inaugural Leagues Cup, a month-long competition featuring all MLS and Liga MX teams that debuts in July, it would show that the former has significantly closed the gap between the two neighboring circuits.
Not that LAFC, which was given a bye-week by MLS to prepare for León, can afford to focus on anything besides the job at hand ahead of Wednesday's opener.
"The most important thing is to go there, play with confidence, with the right mentally to get a good result," Vela said. "And of course, thinking that we have another game."
Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
