LAFC again heating up as it extends unbeaten streak to six games with rout of Seattle
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LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo has been around long enough to know that it’s not how a team starts a season, but how it finishes one that counts. He need look no further than his own team’s short history for proof.
Three times in the team’s first seven seasons, LAFC was 6-4-3 after 13 games; only once has the team started slower. And just once has it failed to finish well enough to make the playoffs.
Guess what LAFC’s record is after Wednesday’s 4-0 rout of the Seattle Sounders?
The team, like the weather, is once again starting to heat up, with the victory running its unbeaten streak to six games over the last six weeks. But if that sounds like a good omen, Cherundolo isn’t buying it.
The Illinois native who grew up San Diego and played professionally in Germany is ready to reconnect “with the European game and coaching in Europe.”
“Every team is different,” said the coach, who is in his fourth season at LAFC. “Every roster you build, every journey is different. To be very honest with you, it seems like one season rolls into the next. It seems like a long, 3 1/2-year marathon.”
Yet if the only similarities Cherundolo sees are the numbers, forward Jeremy Ebobisse — whose goal early in the second half broke open the game — said there are reasons why LAFC typically starts to get hot as the temperatures rise.
“Anytime you go through an offseason where some of the core members move on and you bring on a lot of new guys, there’s going to be ups and downs,” he said.
That pretty much describes every offseason for LAFC. Last winter they got rid of 15 players, including the team’s all-time leading scorer and the second-leading goal-scorer in MLS history. The year before that they got rid of 17 players, including the franchise leader in appearances by a defender.
There’s been so much turnover, in fact, just three players remain from Cherundolo’s first season, which ended with an MLS Cup title. As a result, the early part of the season was about chemistry more than wins and LAFC is beginning to harvest the fruits of that work.
“We got a lot out of the early part of the season, even if we didn’t get all the results that we wanted,” Ebobisse said. “What you’re starting to see is hopefully a sustained run of form where guys can come in and out of the lineup and know what’s expected of us.”
On Wednesday, Cherundolo gave midfielder Frankie Amaya his first LAFC start, paired Ebobisse with Cengiz Under and Denis Bouanga up front and brought Yaw Yeboah off the bench in the final 10 minutes. Of the five, only Bouanga was with the team last season.
Yet all five contributed with Ebobisse, Bouanga and Yeboah scoring goals and Under getting a goal and an assist. It was, Cherundolo said, the team’s most complete performance of the season.
“There are moments that teams need to kind of come together,” he said. “This season, we’ve seen a lot of ups and downs. Very convincing performances and some really poor ones. For the past five weeks now, we’ve been on a very good path, very consistent.
“Guys are doing the little things right again and I think you’re seeing that in the performances, first and foremost, and the results.”
The four goals marked a season high as does the six-game unbeaten streak. Almost unnoticed was the clean sheet, the second in three games for goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
LAFC (6-4-3) went in front to stay in the 26th minute on Under’s second MLS goal, a left-footed strike from well outside the box that appeared to hit a Seattle defender before one-hopping past keeper Andrew Thomas, who was making his second start of the season.
Ebobisse doubled the lead on a breakaway six minutes into the second half, sprinting up the center of the field to catch up to a low Igor Jesus through ball, turning Sounders defender Jon Bell around at the top of the box to create space, then beating Thomas cleanly with a right-footed shot inside the left post.
LAFC’s final two goals came from Bouanga and Yeboah in the final nine minutes. For Bouanga, who was scoreless in his first six games this season, Wednesday’s goal gave him six in as many games.
And LAFC may just be getting started. Its next two games, both on the road, come against teams with one win combined this season, giving it a golden opportunity to continue a streak that has seen the team climb to fifth in the Western Conference standings.
Brian White scored on a header in the 70th minute as the Vancouver Whitecaps rallied to tie LAFC.
“Hopefully it’s the beginning of a nice entry into the summer,” Ebobisse said.
Cherundolo, however, cautioned against overconfidence, especially since Sunday’s game with the winless Galaxy (0-10-3) is a Derby match in which emotions often mean more than records.
“Those games, you have to just completely scratch the performances prior,” he said. “These games are special. These games are always exciting, always intense, and I expect exactly that this weekend.
“This game is completely isolated from the rest of the season. As most Derbys are.”
