LAFC continue to reel following the MLS is Back Tournament, this time dropping a 3-0 road result to Real Salt Lake, sending last year's Supporters' Shield-winners to their fourth loss in five games.
It's been a surprising turn of events, even taking into account the injury absences of star cogs Carlos Vela and Eduard Atuesta, and a red card suspension that kept midfield lynchpin Mark-Anthony Kaye out on Wednesday. The match featured a rotated starting XI due to the congested fixture schedule, but even so, head coach Bob Bradley acknowledged that his team's play continues to fall below the lofty bar they set for themselves a year ago.
"We're in a period where it's well below our standards," Bradley said. "And there's only one thing we can do: We have to play ourselves out of it. We've had discussions, we've had moments where we felt it was going in a good direction, but to a man right now we have to embrace that as good a team as we've been, as much as we've had some really good games not that long ago, with everything going on right now, we've lost our way."
Specifically, Bradley pointed to the set-piece woes that have plagued his team throughout 2020 and surfaced again on Wednesday, with all three goals scored by RSL coming off restarts.
"Our set-piece weaknesses continue to show up – not so much on first balls, but on second balls and clearing balls, those things have hurt us all year," he said. "So, we're just going to continue to work through things, but as I said to the team, we just have to play through it. We can't forget what it means to play for this club, we can't forget what it means to play for our supporters. Even when the game's not going our way, we've got to find a way to fight to the end, not show frustration. Those are difficult asks when you consider everything that's gone on, but that's the only way we're going to do it."
Match Highlights: RSL 3, LAFC 0
For now, the coach said, all his team can do is try to push through this difficult stretch. Vela and Atuesta should provide a boost whenever they return, but LAFC are a squad that demonstrated phenomenal depth a season ago, and even as recently as the tournament in Orlando when they had matches in which they looked like their old selves in Vela's absence.
It's been a different story since they returned from the Orlando bubble. LAFC briefly returned to form with a 5-1 blowout of the San Jose Earthquakes on Sept. 2, but have been outscored 11-1 in their other four matches.
"It's a mix of patience and finding the right way to engage players, especially individuals," Bradley said. "Since we've come back from Orlando, there are so many guys in different places. Brian Rodriguez, it's been a tough stretch for him, but tonight was a little bit better. So that's positive, so we'll try to build on that. Diego [Rossi] has tried to take so much responsibility with Carlos out, with Eduard out, with Mark out, it's a new challenge for him to have that much on his shoulders. I think he continues to push hard. Tonight wasn't his best night. I thought he put in an incredible effort against the Galaxy, I think he just kept going and going. So you want to keep trying to encourage him.
"Young player like [Jose Cifuentes] is making progress. So patience and continuing to try and help him. So you've got cases like that and then you've got other guys that in the moment that have lost a little confidence and a little focus. There's so many different cases going on right now that I think a lot of the work is individual so that then it can show itself in the whole group. But man, oh man, right now you can just see with different guys: Loss of confidence, not the highest levels of concentration. So we've just go to keep trying to help each guy with the things that we see."
Watch: Bob Bradley postgame presser
