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Focused on now instead of what could be, the Los Angeles Football Club’s push to play in a third CONCACAF Champions Cup final has reached arguably its toughest test.Having slayed the Colorado Rapids and the formidable Columbus Crew during the continental competition’s previous rounds, on Wednesday LAFC hosts Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba among a deep and dangerous Inter Miami CF squad that is 8-0-1 in all competitions under debutant head coach Javier Mascherano.“He’s done a great job,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said of Mascherano, a 40-year-old Argentine who played with Messi at FC Barcelona and the national team through 2018.
“If you just judge his performance as a coach by results, winning eight out of your nine, best start ever for the club, is fantastic from a Miami perspective.“It’s our job to make sure that little run stops.”While it’s been all systems go for Inter Miami, which defeated Sporting Kansas City and Jamaican side Cavalier FC to reach the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal, LAFC has produced up-and-down performances six weeks into the season.
“I think you’ve seen two sides of the coin with LAFC,” Cherundolo said. “An aggressive, compact team who sticks together and does things together and I think that’s a very dangerous and very good team. You also see a complacent, more passive one, and I think that’s more of an average team.
“It’s not acceptable and it’s not possible to fulfill your goals and ambitions at LAFC if you have two very contrasting faces and performances. That’s not going to work. It’s up to us to change that.
”Coming off an MLS regular-season defeat at San Diego, LAFC is 5-5-0 in all competitions, though two of their losses netted out to aggregate wins in CONCACAF.Advancing past Miami to play Vancouver or Pumas in the semifinal would help alleviate concerns.Playing at BMO Stadium prior to the return leg at Chase Stadium on April 9 in Ft.
Lauderdale, Cherundolo believes LAFC has identified vulnerabilities to counter Inter Miami, citing moments when the pink-clad visitors showed teeth in transition but sacrificed chances on the other end.LAFC forward Denis Bouanga will seek to exploit spaces behind the Miami defense after coming up big against Columbus in the Round of 16, when he scored three of the club’s four goals in that series. Overall, Bouanga has shone in CCC, tallying 10 goals and four assists in 12 appearances.
Messi, of course, brings a threat that opponents can’t account for on an individual basis. The Black & Gold are familiar, losing 3-1 to Inter Miami at BMO Stadium in 2023 thanks in part to two Messi assists.Mascherano indicated Tuesday that Messi was healthy to play but didn’t tip his hand whether he would start.
LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, whose French side lost on penalties to Messi and Argentina during the 2022 FIFA World Cup final in Qatar, said it is always a great challenge to try and beat “one of the best players of football history.”“We prepare the game to find a collective solution,” Lloris said. “We need to perform at our best.
I think there’s quite a lot of expectation around our performance and we have to increase our level of intensity when you face those types of players – Messi, Suarez, Busquets, Alba.”Seven Inter Miami players have hit the back of the net this year. Appearing in six of Inter’s nine matches, Messi, the genius 37-year-old forward, has five goals (one every 82 minutes) plus a pair of assists.
“Wherever special players pop up you need to be there and they need to feel you,” Cherundolo said. “They need to feel pressure and they need to be stressed. And with the ball, adversely, they need to be occupied defensively.
It’s never a simple effort. It’s always a collective effort.”INTER MIAMI CF AT LAFCWhen: 8:30 p.
m. WednesdayWhere: BMO StadiumTV/radio: Vix, FS1, TUDN, UniMás/710 AM, 980 AMRelated ArticlesLAFC falls to San Diego FC in Snapdragon Stadium debutLAFC ready to sow seeds for a new rivalry with San Diego FCLAFC cruises in dominant win over Kansas CityLAFC takes advantage of time to regroup ahead of Kansas City tripLAFC shut out by Austin FC for 3rd straight loss.
