LOS ANGELES (AP) — The longest, busiest, most grueling season in Major League Soccer history is almost over for Los Angeles FC.
And there's still a chance to end it with a trophy.
LAFC hosts the Houston Dynamo on Saturday in the Western Conference final, which will be its 52nd match of 2023 across all competitions. No MLS team has ever played more matches in a calendar year than coach Steve Cherundolo’s LAFC squad, which earned that dubious achievement by winning the Supporters’ Shield and its first MLS Cup title last year and then having moderate success in the various in-season tournaments for which it qualified this year.
When the LAFC players and coaches involved in this epic look back, they sometimes struggle to remember every match, every competition and every challenge they've met in the year since raising the Cup.
“The season this year, you have to look at it in multiple parts,” midfielder Kellyn Acosta said. “You had the Champions League, you had Open Cups, Leagues Cup, the first part of the (regular) season and now the playoffs, so you look at everything in little tournaments. We’ve had a lot of adversity this year in terms of injuries and some bad losses.
"But from our standpoint at the beginning of the year, this is where we wanted to be. This is our goal, to give us a chance to compete for MLS Cup. We’re one game away.”
One game away from having one more game, that is.
If LAFC can beat Houston, it will travel to Ohio for a second straight MLS Cup Final appearance next weekend in either Cincinnati or Columbus. LAFC could become the first back-to-back MLS Cup champions since the LA Galaxy in 2011 and 2012.
Along with the sheer volume of competition, no MLS team has played more big matches in a year than LAFC, which has participated in the CONCACAF Champions League, the U.S. Open Cup, Leagues Cup and Campeones Cup in addition to the 34-match MLS regular season and playoffs.
“It speaks volumes about the organization,” Cherundolo said. “There’s been an incredible work ethic across the entire organization. Very proud of that, to be able to maintain success, stay calm, don’t panic with all the situations we’ve been dealt with this year, which have been plentiful and difficult at times.”
All of these games haven't led to a trophy, however: LAFC has reached two non-league finals, but lost both.
Simply getting this far is an extraordinary achievement in MLS, however. The league's salary rules annually frustrate ambitious owners who would like to spend more money to build deeper, more talented rosters — and the rules effectively penalize its championship teams by making it more difficult for those clubs to retain their top players while still paying championship bonuses and giving deserved raises.
LAFC had to part with nearly half of last season’s title-winning roster, including star goal-scorer Chicho Arango, key midfielder José Cifuentes, sparkplug forward Kwadwo Opoku and the retired Gareth Bale.
That firepower vacuum has been largely filled by Dénis Bouanga, whose extraordinary season peaked last weekend with his jaw-dropping 37th goal across all competitions in LAFC's 1-0 win at Seattle.
LAFC met its many commitments admirably, fielding a competitive squad in every competition. The weary team went into a six-week slump after losing the Champions League final to León in early June, but Cherundolo rallied his team out of the doldrums and back into contention for a repeat MLS title.
Saturday's game is the last of the season at BMO Stadium, the club's famed arena with a north end supporters' section always packed with fans who sing, drum and never sit down.
The match also could be the LA farewell for several players.
Giorgio Chiellini, the Italian great who bolstered LAFC's back line after he arrived from Juventus in 2022, could be considering retirement at 39.
Diego Palacios, the gifted Ecuadorian left back and a semi-secret key to the club's success since 2019, is expected to leave for a bigger opportunity.
Even Carlos Vela, LAFC's original player and the 2019 MLS MVP, doesn't know if LAFC will be able to give him a fair offer when his contract ends this winter. The 34-year-old forward could still attract European interest six years after he left the continent, even though he's no longer the best player in MLS — or even on his own team, given Bouanga's emergence.
But Vela is hoping Saturday isn't his Los Angeles farewell.
“Well, I want (to return to LAFC),” Vela said. “But I don't decide. It's not my choice. My heart is there, if the other part maybe doesn't work, or it doesn't work in the way I want, we won't be there. Of course I love LA. I want to stay in LA, and my goal is (to) stay in LA.”
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