LOS ANGELES – Most deem LAFC favorites for Saturday’s MLS Cup Final against the Philadelphia Union, and not just because they're hosting at Banc of California Stadium (4 pm ET | FOX, Univision in US; TSN, TVA Sports in Canada).
But Steve Cherundolo isn't buying any underdog story coming from the visitors.
“Yeah, the narrative of Philly always being an underdog is a little self-made,” the Black & Gold's head coach quipped at his Friday press conference. “I think [them being] Supporters' Shield champion in '20, being in the [Conference] Finals last year, in the Cup Final this year.
“I'm not sure that flies anymore.”
Cherundolo might be correct in the traditional sense of the word, as the matchup is a true case of Goliath vs. Goliath. Supporters’ Shield winners LAFC are facing a Union group that finished level with them on 67 points, only ceding the Shield based on the total-wins tiebreaker (21 vs. 19). LAFC won the Western Conference and Philadelphia won the Eastern Conference, creating the first MLS Cup between the postseason's top two seeds since 2003.
However, Philadelphia captain Alejandro Bedoya wasn’t as definitive when asked about the same topic – pointing out it was actually the Union who led MLS in goals scored (72) during the 2022 season.
“Do I feel that we’re the underdog? Well, yeah, I mean, we’re playing in LA,” Bedoya said. “The home team is always favored to win normally in MLS, typically. So yeah, I think the media narrative has always been, the questions that we get asked here have always been, ‘Oh, how do you defend LAFC’s offensive weapons?’ But who scored the most goals this season? Why isn’t our offense getting the same attention as their offense? So, there is some of that. I’m not blaming you guys, but it is the media narrative.
“I’ll take the underdog [role] all the time,” Bedoya added. “Philly typically is a city like that. We like being underdogs out there in Philly. We just use that as motivation, and we’re going to do our best to do what we can to win the game because LAFC is a very, very talented team – a very good team – so we respect them a lot. But we know what got us here, and we know we can compete with anybody, as we’ve already shown. We’ve given them some good games.”
Oddsmakers indeed have LAFC listed as heavy favorites going into the match and FiveThirtyEight also gave the nod to Cherundolo's team, as did experts weighing in on this very website. That's in part due to the home-field advantage provided by the notoriously raucous Banc of California Stadium, which Philadelphia head coach Jim Curtin called “as intimidating an environment as there is” in MLS.
“I think home-field advantage is what skews it in their favor because they're an incredible team in this building,” Curtin said. “So we know how difficult it will be and how hard they make it for you here with their crowd behind them. But our group is brave. I want our guys to go on the field with courage, to not be scared. I think we've kind of taken pride in ourselves that we respect every team, but we fear nobody.”
Further, Curtin stated early in his matchday-1 press conference Philadelphia are "probably the underdog, a position that we're comfortable with and used to." It's a clear source of motivation for the Union, who used the revenge card to great effect in the Eastern Conference Final before resoundingly defeating defending champions New York City FC 3-1 last weekend.
Whatever Philadelphia turn to for inspiration, they have the benefit of knowing they can go toe-to-toe with LAFC on the West Coast. They've drawn their last two games at the Banc, most recently, 2-2 in May of this year, and before that, the famously wild 3-3 draw procured in March 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down global sports.
Curtin credited that latter match as one that “put us on the map,” setting the course to possibly more silverware this weekend.
“Yes, the names and the quality of the opponent is there for sure,” Curtin said. “And it's LA, it's Hollywood. Let's all be honest, I'll probably walk by and our players will walk by and see some celebrities they've only seen on television before sitting on the sidelines, sitting field-side.
“Once you get past that and the opening whistle blows, it's about 90 minutes, and making that – making the game as comfortable for our players has been our goal and keeping things the same. So we didn't change much this week, outside of being in nice, beautiful LA.”
