Having put on a show at home to put away Nashville SC, LAFC were back on the road to take on a Colorado Rapids team who themselves struggled with finding results. With the mounting weight off their shoulders, it honestly looked like LAFC were ready to kick on the season and get back to winning more consistently, or at the very least, looking far more capable in the attack. While we still await the official announcement and subsequent arrival of Giroud, the team did have its newest defender Maxime Chanot and MLS veteran Kei Kamara, with the latter making his LAFC debut as a sub. However, the momentum came to a screeching halt almost as suddenly as it began to gain steam, as the black & gold not only dropped points, but looked as bad as usual doing so.
Defeat in Colorado. pic.twitter.com/XKvndMSLYc
— LAFC (@LAFC) March 30, 2024
As bluntly as it can be put, the team looks more than a bit lost at the moment. Which is so hard to even say because its almost impossible to back up with actual statistics. There is no Expected Lost stat, or a heatmap showing the sudden lack of ideas, but if this were a video game, LAFC are most definitely a team hovering around 60% chemistry at the moment. A group of very talented individuals, but lacking in the collective. In complete fairness to them, this was a bit expected, at least to some degree. With how much turnover LAFC experienced in the roster, with a lot of shuffling to the starting XI and losing several key players in key positions, is a lot for any team. However, what’s most concerning is just how hard the struggle is right now. Bouanga went another match without finding the back of the net, after it looked like maybe he was ready to get going. Legendary goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has looked anything but for a majority of the season, which isn’t a complete surprise but given what the team gave up, is disappointing to see this early in the season.
“We are disappointed” said Head Coach Steve Cherundolo after the match. “There were moments in the game where we looked like ourselves, and our solutions worked, and too many moments in the game where we checked out. We were too reactionary, whether on the ball, or collectively off of it.” LAFC had plenty of opportunities to put the match away in the first half, with 11 shots. Seven of those shots were from inside the box, but only two of them found their target. The one goal they did score in the first half came courtesy of a banger from Atuesta, taken from several yards outside of the box.
In the second half, both teams put together eight shots, but Colorado took five of those eight from inside the LAFC box, while five of the eight for Los Angeles, were taken from distance. What really did it for Colorado on the day, was their ability to be methodical in their tactics. They kept most of the possession throughout the match, and were never out of reach. Responding to ever LA goal with a goal of their own, until they were given the advantage with the red card where they immediately went for the knockout blow, and connected.
Djordje Mihailovic strikes again to give the @ColoradoRapids the late lead! 💪 pic.twitter.com/riYqo1nTRk
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 30, 2024
Let’s talk about that card as well. In a 20 minute span David Martinez came into the match as a substitute, scored a goal to give LAFC the lead in the final stages of the match, then in a ten minute span, accumulated two yellow cards that saw him ejected from the match putting the team down a player for the last ten minutes of the match. Being down a player is never easy, but if we are honest, the best case for a team is losing an attacker to a red card, in the final moments of a match. It’s tough but most competent teams can keep it together for ten minutes, but it took just five for Colorado to smell blood in the water and pounce. As you can see from the above video, LAFC were completely out of sorts, leaving the opposition wide open for a shot from point-blank range to win the match.
Matches like this one are why we always stress, on paper, because on paper, this should have been a win for LAFC. Colorado, while tough, had no business staying in that match. Defensive errors and poor goalkeeper play kept them hanging around long enough to be right there when the final ten minutes of imploding arrived. This should have been a convincing two goal win and three points in the bag. Instead, the team now head into a rivalry match against a team that has always been a handful and has only gotten drastically better over the last season, while awaiting the arrival of another 37-year-old with the hopes he can somehow save this attack. It shouldn’t be like this for the Los Angeles Football Club, but here is hoping they can turn it around soon because, ‘it’s still early’ is almost a thing of the past.
Thoughts on the loss and Galaxy match incoming? Leave a comment below!