LAFC headed into its eighth MLS season Saturday with more questions than answers, few of which were solved in its 1-0 victory over Minnesota United before a sun-splashed crowd of 22,310 at BMO Stadium.
The only goal came from newcomer Jeremy Ebobisse in the 78th minute. On the other end, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was called on to make just two saves in recording his 13th shutout since entering MLS last season.
And while that left LAFC a league-best 8-0 in season openers, it did little to settle doubts over whether the team is good enough to return to the MLS Cup final for a third time in four seasons.
That’s because another busy offseason saw general manager John Thorrington part with 15 players, including three of the team’s four leading scorers and two of its top three midfielders. As a result, four of the 11 players who started Saturday were not with the team to start last season.
Those new players will have to step up to replace what the team lost — in particular the 16 goals and eight assists Mateusz Bogusz contributed before leaving for Mexico’s Cruz Azul last month on a reported $9-million transfer — if LAFC is to build on the success that has allowed it to win more games, score more goals and earn more points that any other team since it entered the league in 2018.
Ebobisse, signed as a free agent in December, was the newcomer who stepped up Saturday.
“Goals can come from a lot of different places, and I need to do my job to take opportunities when they do come,” he said. “We’re up for that challenge. And I think with the depth and the amount of experience that we have across the locker room, as soon as we get clicking and understanding each other’s tendencies, we’ll score quite a bit of goals.”
Over the last four winters, coach Steve Cherundolo has made those roster makeovers work. But that task hasn’t gotten any easier with time.
“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “And frankly, five weeks of preseason is not enough. So that process will keep going and going. It’s not ideal but it’s just one of those things we have to deal with in this league due to the rules we have. We fully accept that.”
The roster may not be the only thing that changes this year. In Cherundolo’s first three seasons LAFC preferred to cede possession and attack in transition. But against Minnesota United, playing with a new midfield anchored by Mark Delgado and Igor Jesus, LAFC had the ball for nearly an hour of the 90 minutes.
“Having more possession this year was something we talked about trying to improve,” Cherundolo said. “We’ve done a great job of that. If we can create more chances with that amount of possession, that’s our next step.
“Marky and Igor have done a great job of controlling the game. Both of them have stepped in right away and changed a little bit of our look and make us, in some ways, more dangerous.”
On Saturday that rebuilt midfield struggled to slow Minnesota’s speedy attackers in the early going but was bailed out when Kelvin Yeboah’s left-footed shot struck the right post and caromed across the goalmouth in the 13th minute. A minute later an attempted clearance struck Yeboah in the box and ricocheted toward the goal, forcing Lloris to pluck it out of the air.
After a scoreless 70 minutes in which the teams combined to put just four of 21 shots on goal, the game swung decidedly in LAFC’s favor when Nathan Ordaz entered for David Martínez. Ordaz, 21, a product of the LAFC academy, immediately opened up the Minnesota defense, drawing a yellow card and setting up a corner kick in his first five minutes. His straight-line speed also helped create the space Ebobisse exploited for his goal.
“Everybody has their own attributes that help the team,” said Ordaz, who had a goal and three assists in just 372 minutes last season. “I’m pretty quick. I like making runs. So that kind of helped the team move forward a bit. People were probably worried about that.”
He got his first assist of the new season when his perfect pass put the ball on Ebobisse’s left foot at the top the box, setting up the shot that eluded Minnesota keeper Dayne St. Clair. The second assist on the score went to Denis Bouanga, although it was Delgado who made the play possible, freeing Bouanga up the left side with a low through ball.
Afterward Bouanga, whose likeness was given to fans in the form of a bobblehead, pronounced himself happy with both the win and the keepsake.
“It looks like me,” he said, smiling at the bobblehead. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”
As for developing chemistry with his new teammates, “it’s going to take a little time,” he said.
Time, however, isn’t on LAFC’s side. The team plays again Tuesday, needing to overcome a one-goal deficit in the second game of a two-leg playoff with the Colorado Rapids to advance to the round of 16 of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
