TAKEAWAYS | Midfield Masterclass, Game Model & Easy Goals

LAFC dominates Vancouver 3-0 to hand the Whitecaps their first road loss and stay unbeaten at BMO Stadium.

There’s no place like home. 

LAFC knows this better than any other team in MLS. 

On Saturday night, LAFC earned its league-best 17th point at home, defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-0. 

The Black & Gold are one of just three teams in MLS without a loss at home in 224. They are joint-top with five victories at home. And LAFC’s 17 points earned of a possible 21 available is tops in MLS.

On the road, it’s a different story. Of the 15 possible points available on the road, LAFC has earned just one. A whopping 94 percent of LAFC’s total points in 2024 have come at home.

Not good, right? Yes. But also, go with me on something here.

Currently, LAFC is earning roughly 80 percent of its possible points available at home. Ten home matches remain for the Black & Gold in 2024. At that rate. with 30 points possible, LAFC would earn 24 points. Added to their current total, without taking any future away matches into consideration, that’s 42 points.

Last season, LAFC finished third in the West with 52 points. Despite its miserable away form in 2024, that’s just a 10 point swing. Or in other words, about 28 percent of the remaining points possible on the road this season. 

If LAFC can even moderately translate its home form to the road, the Black & Gold should be in good, maybe even great, shape. But that remains a huge question mark.

Anyway, here are the Takeaways from LAFC’s 3-0 victory over the Whitecaps:

Game Model

If you haven’t already, and you’re into learning more about what’s going on in matches (I mean, you’re reading this aren’t you?), I recommend watching the postgame press conference. The team clips and posts interviews with Steve Cherundolo and select players after every match. I usually give them a listen before starting the Takeaways just to be sure my eye is calibrated correctly after watching the match.

So, when Steve Cherundolo says something like this after a match, my ears perk up:

“The first half was some game model stuff, especially, I think, the second goal."

Game model stuff excites me. 

It’s a team’s philosophy of play. The game model is a broad set of general principles the coaching staff has instilled in the team. When someone says “X team plays like this,” they’re talking about the game model.

Unlike tactics, game models are constant from match to match. While it’s difficult to understand if observed tactics are conscious decisions or the random result of certain situations on the field, game model principles should be easier to recognize as they occur week in and week out.

In the case of the second goal, we don’t have to guess. 

The highlight starts with Mati Bogusz doing False 9 things by dropping into the pocket of space between the opponent’s backline and midfield. Suppose you could rewind the clip even further back. You’d see the sequence start when Eduard Atuesta wins a ball near the far touchline, surveys the options ahead, and decides to protect possession by passing the ball back away from pressure in the midfield. 

From there, LAFC connects passes from one side of the field to the other and back again. The principle at play is patience with possession - this is a huge shift from the “all-transition, all-the-time” version of LAFC from 2023, might I add. The ball moves quickly between LAFC players but the players themselves hold their positions to move forward as a unit. 

Eventually, after luring the opponent to one side, LAFC works the ball out wide to Dénis Bouanga isolated 1v1 with a defender. And now, it’s on.

Having worked the ball patiently from side to side, LAFC’s lines are connected and upfield. The ball is now in an advantageous position outside the opponent’s penalty area. In the game model, that’s the cue to go quickly to the goal. 

Bogusz sprints inside the box. Timothy Tillman is making a late run from midfield. Omar Campos leaves his position to provide support via an overlap. And Cristian Olivera crashes the goal from the opposite flank.

That consideration for possession, when to go to goal quickly and when to be patient, the connecting of passes and moving together, and then arriving inside the box at the right moment are principles of LAFC’s game model. Each week, Cherundolo and his staff fine-tune the ideas in training. The players then translate those ideas on matchday. 

And now, the next time you watch LAFC play, your eye is calibrated to pick out those principles and patterns.

The Right Place All The Time

Do you want an easy recipe for scoring goals? Take as many shots from as close to the goal as possible.

Easier said than done. 

By halftime against Vancouver, Cristian Olivera scored not once but twice from about three yards from goal. Right place, right time? Maybe. But Olivera has been on a tear as of late with five goals in his last three matches in all competitions.

Olivera’s goals remind me of a quote from English striker Gary Lineker. I’ve referenced this quote in past Takeaways, but I think it’s worth repeating. 

“People often say about a player that scores goals ‘he’s in the right place at the right time.’ That’s true. But the answer to that is to be in the right place all the time” Lineker said once in an interview. “It’s all about making runs and movement in the box. The thing I always do is I make a run. And I’ll decide, I just take a chance to go for a space. I make sure I get there in front of the defender and if the ball comes to me then that’s great. 

So, if I make 15 to 20 of those runs in a game and the ball comes to me once and I’m all on my own two yards out from goal, everybody will say, ‘well, he’s in the right place at the right time.’ But the answer is to be in that place all the time. And eventually when the ball does come to that place, you’re there.”

I can’t say if Olivera has ever read or heard that quote, but the coaching staff has undoubtedly tried to impart something similar into his thinking. 

Olivera has all the technical tools and physical attributes to be a great goalscorer in MLS. Sometimes, we forget that because his execution or decision-making isn’t always on point. But one thing Olivera is starting to understand that his workmate can just as dangerous. 

It’s a lot easier to score goals from two and three yards out. The key is being in the right place as often as possible.

Win The Midfield, Win The Match

Ilie Sánchez, Timothy Tillman, and Eduard Atuesta set the tone for LAFC on Saturday night.

From the opening kickoff, LAFC had an intensity to its game. They outran, outfought, and outsmarted Vancouver over 90 minutes. Those three in Black & Gold in the middle took on the bulk of the work.

Ilie, Tillman, and Atuesta outnumbered Vancouver’s two-man midfield of Alessandro Schöpf and Andrés Cubas to give LAFC a foundation on both sides of the ball. When a midfield dominates the ball the way they did, it makes things easier for the rest of the team.

LAFC’s backline was shielded all night by the duels and second balls won in midfield. Unable to create turnovers and pick up loose balls, Vancouver's attack was blunted to just four shots on target and an xG of 1.2. While the LAFC front three feasted off the steady supply of service. The midfield hoarded the ball and dictated the tempo, connecting passes in tight spaces and picking out teammates at the right moments to play forward.

It was a masterclass. The midfield combined positional and tactical awareness with superior physical intensity. 

The only downer on the night might have been the injury to Ilie late in the match. Just as the midfield three seem to be clicking, LAFC will have to up their midfield maestro won’t be missing for any long period.