LAFC vs LAG Preview

MLS Rivalry Week, it’s something isn’t it. A pretty self-explanatory concept, but yet a pretty crazy one too. A week where (almost) every rival in MLS faces off. I say almost because we do not face San Jose and Vancouver does not face Portland or Seattle. Anyway, thats’ beside the point. Point is it is Rivalry Week which means we are playing against LAFC.

I hate derbies. Some people love them, which I get. Playing in a huge game can be super fun. But, I see the opposite side, it can also really suck. Since the final whistle blew on our game against Seattle all I could think about was this game. Even in the lead up to the Leagues Cup semi-final I was most definitely more focused and nervous for this game. At all times during the week of the LAFC game I am always very nervous. So far those nerves have not been necessary as we have met LAFC four times and have two wins, two draws, and no losses in those four. That really doesn’t do much to settle my nerves however, as each time we play I think to myself “oh boy, this could be the one. This could be the one where we let it slip and we can’t let it slip,” basically I am just a nervous wreck for a week. To add to the nerves of this one, my first real day of my junior year is the day after this match. In other words I won’t be able to sleep before my first day of school because I’ll either be jubilant or devastated. So, that’ll be something. Also, this will be the first El Tráfico I don’t attend so I am interested in seeing to what extent the excitement translates from the stadium, through the TV, and into my living room. I expect for it to come through real well.

Anyway, onto what we are going to need to do to win this derby. I know that most of you will be expecting me to say Zlatan Ibrahimović is the most important thing here, but he isn’t. The most important thing for us will be if Guillermo Barros Schelotto manages to out-coach Bob Bradley as he did in the game last month. It was clear in our last meeting that the pressure of the situation did not phase Schelotto while it absolutely did Bradley. Bradley’s LAFC looked far less organized than they had in a long time and it looked like Bradley just didn’t know to coach them back into the game. While the LA Galaxy looked the most organized they had looked in a long time. We looked like we knew exactly what to do to disrupt LAFC’s game. So, what matters for us is that Bradley hasn’t figured out a way to counter what Schelotto does to them and that if he has figured out a way that Schelotto still knows another way to play to LAFC’s weaknesses.

For the second thing we’ll need I’m going to say the obvious one. We need Zlatan to be up for it again which he probably will be. When Zlatan is up for games he is the best player in this league. The problem is when he isn’t, he isn’t very good. Luckily, odds are he’ll be way up for this game as it’s a derby, he’s always up for it against LAFC, and he is yet to score at Banc of California Stadium. I feel confident that because Zlatan didn’t score at the Banc last time we went, he’ll be really motivated into getting at least one this time. He has also made a few comments pregame that say to me that he’s pretty psyched for this one. I expect a huge performance out of him.

Last thing we need to do is fight through Daniel Steres’ red card and still play our same defense we did in the reverse fixture. In that match we played a back four of Diego Polenta, Daniel Steres, Giancarlo González, and Rolf Feltscher. They did a great job. The only real goal they gave up was a penalty as the other was a missed offside call. This game with Steres’ absence we could have some issues as either we would have to shift Diego Polenta (the man who largely shut down Carlos Vela last month) into center back and put either Dave Romney, Jørgen Skjelvik, or Diedie Traore on Carlos Vela which probably wouldn’t go great or we could keep Polenta on Vela and start Romney in the middle of defense. I prefer the second option simply because Carlos Vela seems to be a bit scared of Diego Polenta and we need to make sure he still has that fear in this game.

Despite the suspension of Steres, I still think we’ll pull out at least a point here. The Banc has been quite the fortress for LAFC as they’ve only ever lost there three times and are yet to lose there in MLS in 2019. But, if there’s a team to stop that I believe it is us. As long as we successfully do the three things I said I really think we’ll win. The issue is if we don’t do just one then we most certainly can lose. That above all is what we need to remember, it’s possible to lose this game just that we need to make sure that we do not.

Predicted score: 2-1 LAG

Scorers: Zlatan and Favio Álvarez