Nkosi Tafari was acquired by the Los Angeles Football Club on Jan. 23. Two months later, the lanky central defender and his new team have gotten in just three weeks of uninterrupted training.
For the first time since the start of LAFC’s competitive calendar, which was congested with midweek matches after opening in Colorado on Feb. 18, the group had a moment to rest, decompress and practice in earnest following their eighth game in 26 days, a 1-0 loss last weekend at home to Austin FC.
“For us it’s great to have some training sessions to get back into better habits and this week has been excellent,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said before the Black & Gold battle with Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday.
“When you’re playing game to game the training sessions and the actual time you can load between games is maybe 40 minutes tops,” he noted, “it’s really difficult to work on your deficiencies and create a match plan for the up and coming opponent that changes every three days.”
Without the burden of a midweek match until CONCACAF Champions Cup returns with a quarterfinal series on April 2 and April 9 versus Inter Miami CF, LAFC has eight full training sessions to work in detail and hammer out players’ questions or concerns coming off the mad-dash start to the year.
Leading up to the match against Sporting, which lost both legs in Round 1 of the Champions Cup to Miami and is 0-3-1 in MLS play so far, LAFC “is making the right steps,” Tafari said.
Still, there remains a need to find chemistry on the field, a sort of unspoken understanding as Tafari sees it. The 27-year-old native of New York City said he and his teammates are working to develop a “real, deal fluidity” that can’t be forced and has thus far eluded them in 2025.
“I think right now we do look a little bit discombobulated,” Tafari suggested. “It looks like there’s a little bit of friction, which is fine — we have a lot of new moving pieces so it complicates things.”
Adding to the challenge in Kansas City, Denis Bouanga is on international duty in Africa as Gabon participates in World Cup qualifiers. LAFC’s leading scorer the past two seasons connected on a pair of goals in a win for his country on Thursday over Seychelles. Gabon plays Sunday in Nairobi against Kenya, but Bouanga should return in time for LAFC’s first-ever match at San Diego FC on the 29th.
Nathan Ordaz, called up by El Salvador for a friendly against the Houston Dynamo, will be available to play SKC.
As Olivier Giroud nurses a minor leg injury and visits Paris to be honored by the French national team on Sunday, Jeremy Ebobisse should feature in the middle of an attack that’s producing a little more than a goal a game.
“When you look at some of our results they’ve been tight games and as an attacker — I know my fellow attackers feel the same way — we want to be doing more to provide some cushions for the team,” said Ebobisse, who has a goal and an assist in seven appearances with LAFC. “All things we hope will be ironed out this weekend and beyond.”
Acknowledging that mental lapses in the early part of the season undercut how they want to play, Ebobisse shared that LAFC (2-2-0) huddled up as a group this week “to get back to what we think makes us best.”
Said Tafari: “I think Jeremy hit the nail on the head with that.”
LAFC AT SPORTING KANSAS CITY
When: Saturday, 5:39 p.m.
Where: Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City
TV/Radio: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass/710 AM, 980 AM
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