By now, you know what happened.
There’s no time to waste on an elaborate, and, ultimately, superfluous intro. LAFC lost a match 3-2 in Colorado to a team that led for exactly one minute of the 90, not including stoppage time. And yet, somehow, the Rapids were deserved winners.
It’s time to investigate. Think of this like a football version of the game Clue. We’ve got three culprits. - each with varying levels of culpability in the loss.
On to the Takeaways where we find out who’s to blame for LAFC’s 3-2 loss in Colorado:
David Martinez
David Martinez lived it all in his 22 minutes on the pitch in Colorado.
Subbed into a 1-1 match in the 63rd minute, the 18-year-old peaked with a wonder goal in the 76th minute. Nine minutes later, he was off the pitch.
First, the goal.
It was the kind of dribble and finish LAFC fans had sneak peeks of in the home matches against Sporting KC and Nashville. Martinez received the ball at the corner of Colorado’s penalty area with one defender closeby and another ready to help. The winger scythed his way between the two, ping-ponging the ball quickly with the instep of his left then right foot. As the Rapids defenders trailed in his wake, Martinez calmly finished around a makeshift screen of a third defender into the bottom corner of Zack Steffen’s net.
At 2-1, Martinez’s individual brilliance tipped the balance of the match in his team’s favor despite Colorado having the better of the play over the last 20-odd minutes. But it was his second yellow card in the 85th minute - mind you, after the Rapids had already leveled the score - that may have catapulted the match right back in Colorado’s favor for good.
The second yellow card was silly. Martinez, already in the referee’s book, kicked the ball away well after a foul and right in the face of the referee. It’s the type of thing no one in the league should expect a different outcome, let alone an 18-year-old.
From hero to petulant youth in the span of 10 minutes is quick the swing. Watching from the locker room as his team failed to secure even a point, Martinez, even at his young age, learned a lesson that, hopefully, goes without saying. But is it fair to scapegoat the 18-year-old?
Let’s be honest, without Martinez’s twinkle toes and composed finish, LAFC wasn’t the team more likely to take the lead in the match. The 18-year-old came onto the pitch with the field firmly tilted in the Rapids’ favor. LAFC staggered like a punch-drunk heavyweight desperately attempting haymaker after haymaker in search of a knockout blow. But with 14 minutes plus stoppages remaining, the bell wasn’t saving LAFC.
We’ll put this down to the folly of youth.
The Defense
I know this sounds crazy after a team gives up three goals. But I don’t think the defense is our primary suspect.
Mistakes were made. Though attributing them solely to the backline would be unfair.
For vast periods of the second half, Colorado was camped in LAFC’s defensive third. The large spells of possession meant the Rapids had time to bring nearly endless numbers forward to overload the backline. The back four held out as long as they could. They scrambled and chased over and over. And each time they cleared the danger, the Rapids were right back on the attack.
A team can only defend deep for so long before some serious questions will be asked. Constant desperate defending without respite, and away from home at altitude, is a big ask of even the stoutest of backlines.
We have to get to the root cause. Why was LAFC defending for its life for long periods? Why was Colorado able to pour forward in numbers without abandon? Was it just the scoreline or something more?
That brings us to our final suspect.
LAFC’s Inability To Control The Game With The Ball
Pep Guardiola loves possession. But it’s not for the reasons you might think.
“When you have the ball, that is the best way to defend. The less the opponent has it, the less chance they have to score.”
If you watched Manchester City play Arsenal to a 0-0 draw on Sunday morning, you got a lesson in this. The first and third highest-scoring teams in the Premier League combined for just 18 shots, only three of which were on target, over 90 minutes. Guardiola’s team has over 70 percent of the possession and they used that possession, first and foremost, to stifle Arsenal.
We’ve gone over this since last season, LAFC doesn’t value possession. At least not in the way Guardiola does. From the moment LAFC wins the ball, it’s looking for the quickest route to goal. With players like Dénis Bouanga, Cristian Olivera, and Martinez at its disposal, it’s a tactic that can devastate the opponent.
LAFC isn’t only dangerous in transition. The Black & Gold can use possession and still go to goal quickly. The goal that Martinez scored originates from a goal kick. LAFC uses just five passes to get the ball onto the foot of Martinez at the edge of the Rapids’ area. It’s a quick possession but a controlled one.
The problem is when the opening to the goal isn’t there. There are times when simply having the ball is what’s needed to control the opponent. As Guardiola says, sometimes you have to defend with the ball. LAFC is still a work in progress in that regard.
Do you know how often LAFC moved the ball into the offensive third of the field, pulled back, and circulated possession for the sake of keeping the ball as far from its goal as possible in the period between Martinez’s goal and Colorado taking the lead? Once. I counted. And that one time was moments before Martinez picked up his second yellow after fouling Djorde Mihailovic.
“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 and were too reactionary across the board,” Steve Cherundolo said after the match.
To me, that quote sounds like a coach telling his team they have to read the game better. There’s a lot of talk about Cherundolo’s transition-heavy tactics but he’s not playing the game. Once the whistle blows, it’s on the 11 players on that field to find the right solutions. They have the license to go to goal if they sense it’s on but if it’s not, the LAFC head coach wants them to find a different solution.
And again, only the players on the field can make that decision. There were times when players were visibly unhappy with their teammates for going too quickly to goal instead of keeping the ball. There’s a struggle for balance in this team right now.
But when LAFC has been under pressure this season, the quick approach has won out so far to the detriment of results. That’s your culprit in the loss of these three points.
I rest my case.
All three post game pressers were interesting. Atuesta and Palencia were clearly frustrated with the incomplete performance. It feels like this team wants to compete for every point and try to win every game, but we just haven’t seen the results on the pitch that reflect that. Palencia was especially heated, which is understandable considering this outcome may cost him the start in El Tráfico next week, even though he had a strong showing.
Of course it’s the easy answer, but this felt like a match where the team really felt Vela’s (and Chiellini’s) absence. The squad is full of character and still has great leaders, but they seem disorganized, maybe even unfocused, considering we’re well over a month into the season. Luckily it’s a long season, but we’ve seen that home field advantage will be very relevant come playoffs, and I don’t love the hole they’re digging themselves into.
Effort across the board has been great, so I’m confident the team is going to be all right, but I certainly don’t envy the tough decisions Dolo will have to make while the roster is still getting ironed out. If nothing else, the next match should be very entertaining.
I know this is not what LAFC fans want to hear, but like the RSL game I don’t think this one has any long term meaning. It seems like no matter how poor of a season Colorado is having or not having LAFC struggles there. In my opinion the altitude sucks the life out of the midfield. LAFC is at its best when it’s squeezing opponents in the midfield creating turnovers that lead to transition opportunities. That’s been true under Dolo as it was under Bob. That’s why I would have liked to have seen Bogusz or Tillman come in off the bench. Rotating an already tired Bogusz back to midfield in the 2nd half does little to help.
I actually think this game showed signs of promise. They managed to score two goals while also creating other promising chances. Eventually they will get a chance to show what they can do on the road without battling the elements.
Losing Martinez for the Galaxy game probably hurts more than losing this game. It really means there is no impact sub who can come off the bench in that game (Kamara was fine, just don’t see him changing a game). But again from the long term perspective his poise in scoring his first goal with a deceptively simple move on the ball (reminded me of the Bouanga goal against Portland in 2022) can’t help but make me feel excited about his future with LAFC.
I do think it’s wrong to call for him to start over Olivera. As you pointed out on the HaFo preview, there’s a lot more that goes into playing the wing than just attacking. He’s clearly still learning all aspects of the position, as well as understanding game states, and the intangibles that players like Chiellini mastered. I’m sure for most of his playing career as a youth he has just been able to out talent opponents. I think LAFC should give him time to learn the game and allow him to do what he currently does best as a sub.