Latest news with #Thorrington
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Hernández: 'We know what's at stake': LAFC braces for shot at Club World Cup
Forward Denis Bouanga and LAFC need to beat Club America on Saturday at Banc of California Stadium to earn a spot in the Club World Cup this summer, which is worth at $9.55 million qualifying prize. (Shaun Clark / Getty Images) LAFC has won an MLS Cup and played in two CONCACAF Champions League finals. None of those games were worth as much as the team's upcoming match. Literally. Next up for LAFC is the $10-Million Game, in which it will play Mexico's Club América on Saturday at Banc of California to determine the final entrant in the Club World Cup. The 32-team tournament, which will be staged across the United States from mid-June to mid-July, has a record-breaking billion-dollar prize pool. Advertisement By simply qualifying for the event and playing in three group-stage matches, LAFC would be entitled to a participation fee of $9.55 million. That might not be considered a significant prize for the Dodgers or Lakers, but it's a major bounty for LAFC, which had a payroll of about $20 million last season. Read more: LAFC star Carlos Vela retires and becomes first club ambassador 'We know what's at stake,' LAFC co-president John Thorrington said. Imagine that, a Major League Soccer team playing a game with real consequences. The stakes are unusually high for a team in a league in which 18 of 30 teams reach the postseason and the threat of relegation is non-existent. Advertisement Real money will be on the line. That's money that could go toward covering the transfer fee or salary of the team's next signature player, as one of LAFC's three designated-player slots could open this summer. Thorrington preferred to emphasize the symbolic importance of LAFC reaching the Club World Cup, how it would move the team one step closer to its long-stated ambition of becoming a global brand. 'The conversation here is not dominated by the financial benefit here, but rather the competitive opportunity that this game and the tournament present,' Thorrington said. If LAFC advances to the Club World Cup, its opening game will be against Chelsea of the English Premier League. The other group-stage games would be against ES Tunis of Tunisia and Flamengo of Brazil. Advertisement 'I think it would be something special,' defender Eddie Segura said in Spanish. The tournament could also be a wake-up call for MLS, which has two other teams in the competition in Inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders. The league has a salary cap, as well as paint-by-numbers roster compliance rules that permit minimal flexibility on how its teams can spend money. Soccer is a sport in which teams are only as good as their weakest links, but the regulations force clubs to construct top-heavy rosters. Read more: Olivier Giroud and Mark Delgado help LAFC salvage draw with Montreal As it was, the financial restrictions were already handicapping MLS teams in its competitions against its Mexican counterparts, with LAFC relying on its smarts instead of the economic might of its deep-pocketed owners to reach two Champions League finals. Now, MLS teams will be taking on opponents with virtually unlimited budgets. Just two years ago, Chelsea spent more than a billion dollars buying players in a single transfer window. Advertisement The Club World Cup's cash prizes offer MLS a powerful incentive to loosen its rules. Group-stage wins are worth $2 million each. Teams will be paid $7.5 million for reaching the round of 16. The champion will take home more than $100 million. The payouts could also force MLS to make changes to its collective bargaining agreement, which was signed when the Club World Cup was still a seven-team tournament. Under the current CBA, LAFC's players would divide $1 million, with the remainder of the $9.55 million participation fee staying with the club. Segura said the players are engaged in talks over their compensation. 'The club would benefit a lot, but I hope that we as players, as the ones who are there giving everything, will also have a chance to benefit,' Segura said. Advertisement The upcoming game has also offered LAFC a firsthand view of FIFA's operations. LAFC's and Club América's opportunity came at the expense of León, which was removed from the Club World Cup field because it was owned by the same group that owned another Mexican team in the tournament, Pachuca. León qualified for the tournament by defeating LAFC in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League final. Rather than award León's place to LAFC, FIFA basically invented a play-in game out of thin air, calling on LAFC to take on Club América, which was the region's highest-ranked team that wasn't already in the tournament. LAFC was at least granted a chance. The Galaxy won the MLS Cup last season, but Inter Miami received the place reserved for the host nation before the MLS playoffs even started. The purported reason was that Inter Miami had the league's best regular-season record. However, the widespread suspicion was that FIFA wanted Lionel Messi in the tournament. Advertisement After all, money is what is driving this tournament and money is what is driving the sport. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
‘We know what's at stake': LAFC braces for shot at Club World Cup
LAFC has won an MLS Cup and played in two CONCACAF Champions League finals. None of those games were worth as much as the team's upcoming match. Literally. Next up for LAFC is the $10-Million Game, in which it will play Mexico's Club América on Saturday at Banc of California to determine the final entrant in the Club World Cup. The 32-team tournament, which will be staged across the United States from mid-June to mid-July, has a record-breaking billion-dollar prize pool. By simply qualifying for the event and playing in three group-stage matches, LAFC would be entitled to a participation fee of $9.55 million. That might not be considered a significant prize for the Dodgers or Lakers, but it's a major bounty for LAFC, which had a payroll of about $20 million last season. 'We know what's at stake,' LAFC co-president John Thorrington said. Imagine that, a Major League Soccer team playing a game with real consequences. The stakes are unusually high for a team in a league in which 18 of 30 teams reach the postseason and the threat of relegation is non-existent. Real money will be on the line. That's money that could go toward covering the transfer fee or salary of the team's next signature player, as one of LAFC's three designated-player slots could open this summer. Thorrington preferred to emphasize the symbolic importance of LAFC reaching the Club World Cup, how it would move the team one step closer to its long-stated ambition of becoming a global brand. 'The conversation here is not dominated by the financial benefit here, but rather the competitive opportunity that this game and the tournament present,' Thorrington said. If LAFC advances to the Club World Cup, its opening game will be against Chelsea of the English Premier League. The other group-stage games would be against ES Tunis of Tunisia and Flamengo of Brazil. 'I think it would be something special,' defender Eddie Segura said in Spanish. The tournament could also be a wake-up call for MLS, which has two other teams in the competition in Inter Miami and the Seattle Sounders. The league has a salary cap, as well as paint-by-numbers roster compliance rules that permit minimal flexibility on how its teams can spend money. Soccer is a sport in which teams are only as good as their weakest links, but the regulations force clubs to construct top-heavy rosters. As it was, the financial restrictions were already handicapping MLS teams in its competitions against its Mexican counterparts, with LAFC relying on its smarts instead of the economic might of its deep-pocketed owners to reach two Champions League finals. Now, MLS teams will be taking on opponents with virtually unlimited budgets. Just two years ago, Chelsea spent more than a billion dollars buying players in a single transfer window. The Club World Cup's cash prizes offer MLS a powerful incentive to loosen its rules. Group-stage wins are worth $2 million each. Teams will be paid $7.5 million for reaching the round of 16. The champion will take home more than $100 million. The payouts could also force MLS to make changes to its collective bargaining agreement, which was signed when the Club World Cup was still a seven-team tournament. Under the current CBA, LAFC's players would divide $1 million, with the remainder of the $9.55 million participation fee staying with the club. Segura said the players are engaged in talks over their compensation. 'The club would benefit a lot, but I hope that we as players, as the ones who are there giving everything, will also have a chance to benefit,' Segura said. The upcoming game has also offered LAFC a firsthand view of FIFA's operations. LAFC's and Club América's opportunity came at the expense of León, which was removed from the Club World Cup field because it was owned by the same group that owned another Mexican team in the tournament, Pachuca. León qualified for the tournament by defeating LAFC in the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League final. Rather than award León's place to LAFC, FIFA basically invented a play-in game out of thin air, calling on LAFC to take on Club América, which was the region's highest-ranked team that wasn't already in the tournament. LAFC was at least granted a chance. The Galaxy won the MLS Cup last season, but Inter Miami received the place reserved for the host nation before the MLS playoffs even started. The purported reason was that Inter Miami had the league's best regular-season record. However, the widespread suspicion was that FIFA wanted Lionel Messi in the tournament. After all, money is what is driving this tournament and money is what is driving the sport.
Los Angeles Times
26-02-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Mark Delgado lifts LAFC to CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 16 in win over Colorado
When John Thorrington began remaking LAFC's roster this offseason, there were several traits he was looking for. He wanted players who were talented, of course, but he also wanted versatility, leadership and big-game experience. In other words, he wanted players like Mark Delgado. Delgado rewarded that faith Tuesday, scoring the lone goal in LAFC's 1-0 win over Colorado in the deciding second leg of a first-round CONCACAF Champions Cup playoff at BMO Stadium. The score left the teams tied, 2-2, on aggregate goals but LAFC will advance to the next round on away goals, thanks to Aaron Long's late score in the playoff opener last week in Colorado. LAFC will play host to the Columbus Crew in the opener of the round of 16 playoff on March 4. The second game will be played March 11 in Columbus, where LAFC lost both the 2023 MLS Cup final and last summer's League Cup final. LAFC, playing in the CONCACAF tournament for the third time in six seasons, made the final in its two previous trips, the only MLS team this century to accomplish that. But it's also the only MLS club to lose two finals, falling to Tigres in a single game in a COVID bubble in 2020 and losing both ends of a two-leg final to León three years later. The team's deep CONCACAF run in 2023 forced LAFC to play a league-record 53 matches that season, covering enough miles to circumnavigate the globe 2½ times. It was a lesson learned for Thorrington, the team's general manager, who said the team he built this winter is the deepest LAFC has had at the start of a season. One of those additions was Delgado, a versatile midfielder who helped the Galaxy to an MLS title last season, then got a multiyear contract from Thorrington after moving 11 miles up the freeway to LAFC last month. 'We know we have a really busy start to the season relative to last year,' said Thorrington who team, with Tuesday's win, will play at least 10 games in the first 35 days of the season. 'So our objective was to get as deep and robust as possible to manage that early-season load.' But if Thorrington added depth, experience and versatility, he didn't add much scoring punch. LAFC's only score in the CONCACAF opener came on Long's header in the 87th minute. And it got just one goal in its MLS opener, a 1-0 win over Minnesota United last Saturday. LAFC was sixth in the 29-team league in scoring last season. With Long's goal carrying extra weight in the CONCACAF Cup's aggregate scoring, LAFC needed just one score to eliminate Colorado and it got that four minutes into the second half. David Martínez set up the goal, driving hard up the right side of the penalty area, then sending a low right-footed cross into the center of the box where a sliding Delgado just enough of his right boot on the ball to redirect it past Colorado keeper Zack Steffen. The goal was Delgado's first since for LAFC and it made him the only player to score for all three of Southern California's MLS teams, Chivas USA, the Galaxy and LAFC. Second-half sub Nathan Ordaz appeared to double the lead in the 74th minute but the score was waved off because teammate Jeremy Ebobisse was offside. So it fell to goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to preserve LAFC's advantage on the away-goal tiebreaker and his defense made it easy; Lloris was not called on to make a save in recording his second shutout in four days and his 16th in all competition since coming to L.A. last winter. Colorado failing to score at BMO Stadium isn't exactly news, however. The Rapids have yet to beat LAFC at home in eight tries and have failed to score in their last five visits. Colorado has been outscored 23-2 all-time at BMO Stadium.
Los Angeles Times
23-02-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Jeremy Ebobisse scores in his LAFC debut in season-opening win over Minnesota
LAFC headed into its eighth MLS season Saturday with more questions than answers, few of which were solved in its 1-0 victory over Minnesota United in front of a crowd of 22,310 at BMO Stadium. The game's only goal came from newcomer Jeremy Ebobisse in the 78th minute. On the other end, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was called on to make just two saves in recording his 13th shutout since entering MLS last season. And while that left LAFC a league-record 8-0-0 in home openers, it did little to erase doubts over whether the team is good enough to return to the MLS Cup final for a third time in four seasons. Another busy offseason saw general manager John Thorrington part ways with 15 players, including three of the team's four leading scorers and two of its top three midfielders. As a result, four of the 11 players who started Saturday weren't even with the team at this point last season. Those new players will have to step up to replace what the team lost — in particular the 16 goals and eight assists Mateusz Bogusz contributed before leaving for Mexico's Cruz Azul last month on a reported $9-million transfer — if LAFC is to build on the success that has seen it win more games, score more goals and earn more points that any MLS team since it entered the league in 2018. 'When you are selling players because they've generated interest, it means they've done really well for you,' Thorrington said. 'Yes, it's harder. But we don't shy away from that. And now our job is to find the next guy that our supporters will cheer for and will represent LAFC.' What hasn't changed is the way LAFC plays, often preferring to play defense and attack in transition (although the Black and Gold had the ball for nearly an hour of the 90 minutes against a cautious Minnesota United on Saturday). And that's made the rebuilding job more challenging. 'There are some really good players out there in our league and elsewhere that just don't fit how we play,' Thorrington said. 'To build a sustainably successful team, you need to have a real sense of identity as to what type of people you want in this building and how the team comes together to fit a game model.' That model worked last year when LAFC (19-8-7) finished atop the Western Conference standings and won the U.S. Open Cup. But it failed in the playoffs, with LAFC going out in the conference semifinals, its earliest exit in three years. On Saturday, LAFC's rebuilt midfield struggled to slow Minnesota's speedy attackers in the early going but was bailed out when Kelvin Yeboah's left-footed shot struck the right post and caromed across the goalmouth in the 13th minute. A minute later an attempted clearance struck Yeboah in the box and ricocheted toward the goal, forcing Lloris to pluck it out of the air. After a scoreless 70 minutes in which the teams combined to put just four of 21 shots on goal, the game swung decidedly in LAFC's favor when Nathan Ordaz entered for David Martínez. Ordaz, 21, a product of the LAFC academy, immediately opened up the Minnesota midfield, drawing a yellow card and setting up a corner kick in his first five minutes. His straight-line speed also helped create the space Ebobisse exploited for his goal. A wide-open Ebobisse, signed as a free agent in December, beat Minnesota keeper Dayne St. Clair with a left-footed shot from the top the box after Denis Bouanga and Ordaz worked the ball around the penalty area. But it was Mark Delgado, another new acquisition, who made the play possible by freeing Bouanga up the left side with a through ball. If LAFC remains a work in progress in some areas, it has managed to weather the weather, opening its non-league schedule with a 2-1 loss to Colorado in the first game of a two-leg CONCACAF Champions Cup playoff that will conclude Tuesday at BMO Stadium. That game, in suburban Denver, kicked off in snowy 1-degree temperatures, making it the coldest-ever game between MLS teams. It was a comfortable 74 degrees at the start of Saturday's regular-season opener.
Los Angeles Times
18-02-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
LAFC ‘incredibly hungry' as it opens Champions League play in search of elusive title
LAFC is the only MLS team to play in two CONCACAF Champions League finals this century. It is also the only MLS team to lose two CONCACAF Champions League finals this century. And therein lies a lesson for the team, which begins play in the tournament for a third time Tuesday, facing the Colorado Rapids in the opener of a two-leg first-round playoff in suburban Denver. The forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-teens with a chance of snow. The second and deciding game will be played Feb. 25 at BMO Stadium, with the winner advancing on aggregate goals. 'We as a club will learn from those experiences,' LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington said of his team's previous visits to the title game of CONCACAF's most prestigious club tournament. 'The bitterness of losing a final doesn't go away until you actually win one, so that keeps us incredibly hungry.' LAFC fell to Tigres in a single-game final played in a COVID bubble in 2020, then was swept by León in a two-leg final three seasons later. Teams from Mexico's Liga MX have won 18 of the last 19 CONCACAF tournaments, with only the Seattle Sounders' victory in 2022 interrupting that streak. 'The lesson to be learned for all MLS clubs is we need to continue to grow,' LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said. 'Our rosters need to continue to grow and also quality-wise need to get better in order to start winning the trophy. 'Getting to the final is one thing. But actually raising trophies regularly is another.' The Champions League, renamed the CONCACAF Champions Cup this season, is one of the few prizes LAFC hasn't won since entering MLS eight years ago. Under Thorrington the team has won two Supporters' Shields, an MLS Cup and the U.S. Open Cup. It also played in the Leagues Cup final last year, losing to Columbus. As a result, LAFC has averaged 48 games a season over the last three years, or more than a match a week. That puts a lot of strain on a thin roster so to prepare for long runs in multiple tournaments again this season, Thorrington has built what he believes is the strongest team to open a season in LAFC's short history, one that goes two deep at every position. 'We know we have Champions League. We know we have a really busy start to the season relative to last year,' he said. 'So our objective in the offseason was to get as deep and robust as possible to manage that early season load.' That's a slight change from the strategy Thorrington has used the last three years, when he added players such as Olivier Giroud, Marlon, Giorgio Chiellini, Gareth Bale and Denis Bouanga in the middle of season. Already this winter Thorrington has signed forward Jeremy Ebobisse as a free agent, traded for midfielder Mark Delgado, acquired Ukrainian defender Artem Smolyakov and Brazilian midfielder Igor Jesus on transfers and was in the process Monday of finalizing a deal for talented Turkish winger Cengiz Under on loan. However the tight MLS salary cap also forced LAFC to say goodbye to some valuable players, among them midfielders Ilie Sánchez, Lewis O'Brien and Eduard Atuesta, defenders Omar Campos and Jesús Murillo, and attackers Mateusz Bogusz and Cristian Olivera. 'The moves we've made, the salary cap space we've made available, have allowed us to create a stronger team,' Thorrington said. The two first-round Champions Cup games will be sandwiched around LAFC's MLS opener Saturday against Minnesota United. And if LAFC advances to the CONCACAF tournament's round of 16, it will play more Champions Cup games than MLS games in the first month of the regular season. Cherundolo said that's a distraction to the team learned to ignore in its previous CONCACAF tournaments. 'We're just focused on our next game and the next round. What comes after that we'll deal with then,' he said. 'That approach seems to have been fine over the last three years. 'We are fully aware of what the season could look like if you reach finals again and we're prepared for that. We will finalize our roster accordingly.'
