Your Wednesday Kickoff: LAFC on the verge of becoming MLS’ best-ever team

What you need to know

LAFC roll Philadelphia to reach Concacaf Champions League final

LAFC have booked their second shot at a Concacaf Champions League title in four years, earning that opportunity with a resounding 3-0 rout over the Philadelphia Union in Tuesday night’s semifinal second-leg clash at BMO Stadium. The Black & Gold, who won the series 4-1 on aggregate, will discover Wednesday evening if they’ll face Liga MX’s Tigres UANL or Club León in the 2023 final. The continent’s biggest club prize will be decided across two legs on May 31 and June 4.

Portland Timbers midfielder Ayala out for 2023 with torn ACL

The Portland Timbers have lost a second central midfielder to a season-ending ACL injury. David Ayala will miss the rest of the 2023 campaign. Ayala, 20, got injured during the first half of Portland’s 2-1 win Saturday at St. Louis CITY SC. He’s expected to be sidelined for nine months after undergoing surgery early next week, putting him on track to return for the 2024 season.

Sign up for The Daily Kickoff in your inbox! The Daily Kickoff is more than an article – it can be delivered to your email account as well.

Assorted thoughts from the CCL semifinal that was

LAFC are through to the CCL final. And they did it in style. Let’s talk it out.

1

This could be a blowout

It’s not like we haven’t seen Philadelphia commit a hard foul or two before. But – and maybe this is just me getting a little too “narrativey” but stay with me here – something felt off about Alejandro Bedoya’s early orange card foul. It didn’t feel like the Union were setting the table for the kind of street-fight game they excel at; it felt far more like they were simply lucky to survive the moment. When LAFC found the net a few minutes later it felt like you could call the game there. Even with the Union needing another goal in a stadium they’ve had no problem scoring in.

I don’t really know what that says about the Union. However, I think it says a lot about LAFC. Mainly that…

2

There are levels to this

CCL sets up the kind of championship scenarios that bring out the best in the best teams. At their best, the Union are a very, very good team. LAFC are something different.

I mean, in the second half of this one, LAFC brought on José Cifuentes and Mahala Opoku off the bench. Those are absolute locked-on starters for 99.9% of the league’s teams and outright stars for a smaller, but not all that different percentage. They came off the bench in a CCL semifinal.

Look, I feel it’s important to remind everyone the University of Georgia American football team won the national championship for the second-straight year this season. (And I’ll point out to my editors that if Extratime can take every episode to talk about the got dang Knicks, who have not won a darn thing since the Nixon administration, I can talk about the back-to-back national champions.) And they won it this year by clobbering an underdog TCU team 65-7.

Was TCU a bad team? Absolutely not! They played as a team, put together great results all season and made it to the title game. But up against a team with players sitting on the bench that have more talent than your starters, they didn’t have a chance when Georgia brought its A-game. To make a more soccer-centric reference because I feel like I have to now, you could see a similar outcome in the Manchester City-Arsenal match last week.

There are levels to these kinds of things. And LAFC have put together a roster that’s a level above everyone else. As long as LAFC didn’t come out and face-plant or the Union didn’t go Super Saiyan, this was going to be the outcome. When the Union came out and flinched at the start, they were doomed.

3

Two games are better than one

You can’t help but wonder how different things might have been without Kellyn Acosta’s late equalizer in Philly. My gut call is we probably see something similar to last night anyway, but maybe a little extra pressure causes that face-planting we were talking about to be a little more plausible. For Acosta to go from a low-moment handball in the box to a series-deciding hero in the span of five minutes is some excellent storytelling.

4

Give me the rematch

A few years ago, it seemed like LAFC were set to become the first MLS team to win CCL. Yeah, it might have felt weird considering the 2020-ness of it all, but it still would have counted. They held a lead against Tigres late before the same talent disparity that decided this series showed up in favor of one of Liga MX’s most successful clubs.

This year, I’m not convinced that disparity still exists. Tigres are great, but something seems a little more even now. All Tigres have to do to let us find out is take care of business tonight against Club Leon and hold onto a 2-1 lead. If that happens, it feels like we’re in for something very, very special. We might be looking at the best collection of quality between an MLS and Liga MX team ever. As good as Seattle were on their way to a title last year, Pumas didn’t quite bring the same talent level as Tigres and LAFC. Again, there are levels to this thing. And we’re set to be at the absolute highest level if these two meet.

5

LAFC are on the very edge “Best Ever” status

I almost went ahead and crowned them, but I have to call it a draw for now considering Toronto FC put together a similar Supporters’ Shield to MLS Cup to CCL finalist run back in 2017-18. And to be fair to the Reds, they took down Tigres and Club America on their way to the final before losing on penalties to Chivas. That’s an absurd run. Especially back in 2018.

But if LAFC take down whoever’s next, there’s no real debate. Especially considering that, even with CCL, they don’t seem set to fall into the same pit of misery other CCL finalists have. They’ve still been the best team in the league as well. And there’s no real reason to think they’re going to slow down much. They could legitimately be looking at a Supporters’ Shield to MLS Cup to CCL to Supporters’ Shield stretch.

We’re witnessing something special here. It’s worth appreciating LAFC have put together this kind of team while operating within the same rules as everyone else. They’ve taken advantage of their location, status and brand in a way other big clubs (another LA club, for example) simply haven’t. They’re just better. And they keep reminding us of that with every big win.

The Reading Rainbow