On March 4, 2018, LAFC traveled to then n CenturyLink Field for their first game in club history against the reigning Western Conference champion Seattle Sounders FC. Within 11 minutes of kickoff, the newly formed club took a 1-0 lead on a beautiful strike, shocking everyone in the stadium, including the away fans witnessing their team’s first-ever goal.
The Sounders pestered shots at the LAFC goal for the rest of the game but the Black and Gold’s determination to capture their first win would not budge. As fans, players, and coaches walked out of the stadium that night stunned by a 1-0 LAFC win, they knew a new major MLS rivalry had formed.
Six years later, the rivalry adds a new dimension as the two meet for the very first time in Leagues Cup play when the now reigning Western Conference champions make the trip back north to Lumen Field on Saturday night to face their familiar foes in the quarterfinals.
As the two most successful MLS clubs over the past half-decade, the latter stages of knockout competitions are no stranger to either of these clubs. In fact, past meetings in such scenarios have helped deepen and enrich this rivalry throughout the years. In 2019, LAFC captured the club’s first Supporters’ Shield but was denied further silverware when Seattle won the Western Conference Final 3-1 in LA. The next year, LAFC knocked the Sounders out of the MLS is Back Tournament before Seattle returned the favor again in the playoffs at home.
Most recently, the pair met in the playoffs last season resulting in a similar storyline to their first meeting. Sounders dominated the game in Seattle but a first-half Denis Bouanga goal on the counterattack was enough for the Black and Gold to move on with the 1-0 victory.
That memory stuck with Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer until the teams met in the regular season this year where he hoped to get a win. In two meetings, however, LAFC has picked up all six points this season, leaving Schmetzer eager to get back in the win column against his LA nemesis.
“The last game we played against LAFC we made a couple of mistakes and that is a team that is going to punish you when you make those mistakes…You’ve got to play mistake-free because 22 out of their 60-some-odd goals this season have been in transition moments,” Schmetzer pointed out. “The flipside of that is we have to score against them. We have to make them pay when they make a mistake because they’re not perfect.”
Schmetzer and LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo are two of the best managers in MLS as evidenced by their shared accolade of winning MLS Cup in their first season as managers. For Schmetzer, that came in 2016 — making him the third-longest tenured coach in the league today — followed by another in 2019 and then the first Concacaf Champions League title for an MLS team in 2022.
Cherundolo is also one to set records, though he’s had less time to do so in just his third season as LAFC manager. In his first season, Cherundolo set the MLS record for wins by a first-year head coach (21) and became the first of his kind to win both the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup. In his second season, Cherundolo led LAFC back to MLS Cup as well as the club’s second CCL final but was unable to capture a trophy in three finals appearances including the Campeones Cup. Putting more silverware in the cabinet is the focus this season for Cherundolo and his team is only three matches away from doing it once more in Leagues Cup.
First, they must get past their Western Conference rival.
“It’s a high-quality opponent. It’s an intense match. There is little room for error,” Cherundolo echoed Schmetzer’s mistake-free sentiments. “The mistakes that are made or the opportunities that are given, you need to capitalize on.”
The good news is neither team struggled to capitalize on their opportunities in their Round of 32 matchups to the tune of four goals each in wins over Pumas and San Jose Earthquakes respectively. Plus, both will benefit from upgraded attacking availability on Saturday.
France’s all-time leading goalscorer Olivier Giroud made his LAFC debut last round and will be available to supplement the in-form attacking trio of Bouanga, Mateusz Bogusz, and Cristian “Kike” Olivera as he works his way to full fitness. Likewise, despite struggling with injuries this season the Sounders' newest designated player Pedro de la Vega will also be available on the bench to assist goalscorer Jordan Morris and creator Albert Rusnák in the attacking third.
“We both have been near the top or top of the Western Conference since they came into the league,” Morris shared on the rivalry. “When two heavyweights of the Western Conference go against each other like that it’s always going to be a good battle. Like you mentioned, we’ve matched up in a lot of knockout games.
“At the beginning, we were getting the best of them and now it’s switched a little bit. We’ve got to turn that back in our favor. [In] 2019 [and] 2020 we knocked them out of the playoffs. Last year, they knocked us out of the playoffs. Hopefully, we can get a bit of revenge tomorrow.”
As both managers foreshadowed, victory will come down to execution on the day between two of the premier organizations in MLS as the pair chase a semifinal berth and the only trophy neither has ever won.
