LAFC celebrates finally snapping its finals skid, winning the U.S. Open Cup
It was a scene that felt both familiar and long overdue for LAFC.
Since entering Major League Soccer seven years ago, the team has raised an MLS Cup and two Supporters’ Shields before its fans at BMO Stadium. Only the Columbus Crew has won more trophies during that span.
Yet when a massive crimson victory platform was wheeled onto the stadium floor Wednesday night, minutes after LAFC beat Sporting Kansas City 3-1 in extra time to win its first U.S. Open Cup championship, the mood was more relief than joy.
Even the fireworks felt compulsory rather than celebratory.
Wednesday’s game was the team’s fifth final in the past two seasons; according to MLS, only three other teams in league history have played for hardware that often in so short a span.
LAFC is the only one of those teams to have lost four in a row. It couldn’t afford another loss.
“It means a lot to win tonight,” said goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who was embraced by a group of teammates at the final whistle.
“This trophy,” he added, “is really important.”
“Tonight was a bit special,” agreed Olivier Giroud, who won a World Cup alongside Lloris for France and now has won a U.S. Open with him at LAFC.
The Los Angeles Kickers won multiple U.S. Open Cup titles in the 1950s and ‘60s. Players on those teams will be honored before Wednesday’s final.
Special because it proved, in case anyone had forgotten, that LAFC can win a final. In fact, the team is just the fourth club in MLS history to win a Supporters’ Shield, MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup in a three-year span — and the first to do so since the Seattle Sounders in 2014-16.
So even with four finals losses in a row coming into Wednesday, coach Steve Cherundolo said the team had no demons to exorcise, a view he repeated after joining his players in parading their latest trophy around the field.
“I don’t know why you don’t believe me,” he said. “You have a winner and a loser in every final. And before every final, it’s kind of like a coin toss.
“We’re happy, obviously, to win. And I think we were due.”
The win didn’t come easily, however.
After a cautious, physical and scoreless first half, Giroud’s goal gave the team a 1-0 lead in the 53rd minute. But Erik Thommy, whose turnover at midfield led to Giroud’s score, matched that with a goal of his own seven minutes later.
That sent the game to extra time, where the most star-studded team in MLS was rescued by goals from substitutes Omar Campos and Kei Kamara.
Campos’ score 12 minutes into the first extra period was also his first with the team and came after the Mexican defender ran onto a Cristian Olivera pass as he entered the penalty area. He then dribbled across the top of the box to create space before drilling a right-footed shot inside the far post.
Kamara, who came off the bench at the start of extra time, then put the game away with a header four minutes into the second extra-time period.
“I am ecstatic,” Cherundolo said, “for the players.”
“I thought it would be more relief,” he added when asked about his emotions. “But it really is just joy.”
Probably a little bit of fatigue as well since the game was LAFC’s 94th game in all competition since the start of last season. No MLS team has ever come close to that.
And that schedule and LAFC’s recent results in finals are likely related. Because if playing in so many competitions (MLS, CONCACAF Champions League, Campeones Cup, Leagues Cup, U.S. Open Cup) during the past two years has increased the team’s chances of playing for titles, it’s also forced it to play a game every five days during the last two seasons.
Now, with all those other tournaments out the way, LAFC (14-8-7 in MLS play) has nothing left to focus on but its final five regular-season games and the start of the MLS playoffs.
“We know we can improve,” Giroud said of a grind that resumes Saturday in Cincinnati. “This Cup will bring us confidence for the rest of the season because we don’t want to stop there. We have a strong end of the season, qualify for the playoffs and go as far as we can in the playoffs.
“We are hungry. We know our potential. Our qualities.”
For Sporting Kansas City, meanwhile, the fact it was playing for hardware at the end of what will likely be its worst season since 1999 — when it played in a different state under a different name — is part of the magic of the U.S. Open Cup.
SKC (8-16-7) is one of just two teams that have already been eliminated from playoff contention with three weeks to play. Yet Wednesday it was playing for a fifth U.S. Open Cup title, which would have made it the most successful MLS team in tournament history. But after playing LAFC even for more than 100 minutes, its players would up parading across the makeshift crimson stage to collect consolation medals while LAFC carried off the Cup.
“Details count in soccer,” Thommy said. “It’s the result we have.”
