Not quite happy. Not so sour. From aggressive and crisp to passive and wilting. That’s been the up-and-down story through a third of the Los Angeles Football Club’s 2025 MLS season.
The theme was framed again on Sunday by a familiar set of circumstances.
LAFC exhibited positive signs alongside frustrating ones during a compelling showdown at the top-of-the-table Vancouver Whitecaps.
Finalists for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, too, the high-flying Canadians fell a bit flat to start their 13th meeting with LAFC over the past two-plus seasons. Poor positioning opposite LAFC’s coordinated aggression put Vancouver face to face with a ninth defeat against its guests since 2023.
Two goals for the Black & Gold within 20 minutes produced the high.
Then came the low.
With an away lead to defend, LAFC opted to be less active with the ball. So for about an hour the game went the other direction. Limited possession, defending deeper, and, eventually, concession of what would have been a signature three points.
Holding onto leads can require doing less with the ball. It can also mean having to play out of pressure from a low block, which, if done right, should set up opportunities on the counter.
This is where LAFC fell short.
“I think if we were a little better in that phase then we win this game for sure,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “But we didn’t, so I think a point is fair.”
Coming at a time when momentum and belief inside the team heading into the FIFA Club World Cup playoff against Club America carries added weight, according to LAFC goalkeeper and 2018 world champion Hugo Lloris, shoring up details that players and coaches talk about all the time can make the difference.
Rather than nailing down the win, said midfielder Mark Delgado, who opened the scoring in Vancouver, “we kind of got away from all the good things we did in the first half. Second half, they applied a little more pressure to us, which I think we still could have really dissected if we stayed a bit calmer. That’s an area we definitely need to grow.”
That’s the small stuff from Vancouver.
The big stuff: LAFC is now unbeaten in five straight and, in keeping its run alive, pushed the team of the moment in MLS to the brink.
“This just confirms our momentum,” Cherundolo said Sunday evening. “This confirms our pathway right now as a group and the way we’re doing things. A lot of good. Just very few small details away from being really good. We’ll continue to work on that. We’ll show the guys and we’ll try on Wednesday to improve on those moments and try to keep things going, of course.”
A midweek contest at BMO Stadium against the Seattle Sounders, who thumped Cherundolo’s group, 5-2, at Lumen Field in March, comes next.
One point ahead of LAFC (5-4-3, 18 points) in the Western Conference standings, fifth-place Seattle (5-3-4) also enters unbeaten in a handful of MLS contests, compiling four victories and a draw compared to two wins and three draws for the Black & Gold.
Former LAFC forward Danny Musovski, a member of the 2022 MLS Cup championship squad prior to being traded in August of that year to Salt Lake City for $250,000 in general allocation money, has filled in admirably for the injured Jordan Morris at the top of Seattle’s attack, starting and scoring in each of their past five games.
SEATTLE AT LAFC
When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: BMO Stadium
TV/radio: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV/710 AM, 980 AM
