LAFC set to begin new era with CONCACAF Champions Cup game at Real España

Credit Son Heung-min for playing a big part in the Los Angeles Football Club opening its ninth season in Honduras on Tuesday.

Following the South Korean superstar’s arrival last August, LAFC went from averaging 1.6 points per game to a solid two over a dozen MLS matches to close out the 2025 regular season.

That late charge pushed LAFC to 60 points, which proved enough to claim the final spot among MLS teams participating in the latest version of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Coming off the club’s first Supporters’ Shield-winning effort in 2019, a Bob Bradley-led squad in 2020 was the first to represent LAFC in a continental competition that remains key to its global ambitions.

Losing, 2-0, at León in its opening match preceded a famous 3-0 return leg triumph in Exposition Park and an early piece of club lore. LAFC went on to finish second to Mexico’s Tigres UANL after the tournament, postponed and abbreviated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, culminated on a neutral site in Orlando that December.

The Black & Gold did not have the chance again until 2023.

Steve Cherundolo’s second season, following a stellar debut that added Supporters’ Shield No. 2 and an MLS Cup championship to the club’s trophy case, produced another runner-up CONCACAF finish when León claimed its revenge at BMO Stadium.

The next year, lifting the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup secured LAFC’s berth into CCC for what turned out to be Cherundolo’s Aloha season. Two weeks after bowing out in the quarterfinal to Lionel Messi and Inter Miami, the American head coach announced plans to depart at the end of 2025.

Still, a flurry of moves during the summer window made LAFC among the obvious favorites to compete for the league championship, primarily because Son’s influence made Cherundolo’s defend-and-transition tactics lethal.

A team that played more pragmatic and less adventurous compared to Bradley’s high-flying groups was suddenly running opponents off the field without compromising its defensive shape around goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, one of two MLS goalkeepers with 10 or more shutouts on the season.

As Son combined with Denis Bouanga – MLS’ most dangerous attacker three years running – the club counted 19 of its last 22 regular-season goals (plus four of six in the postseason) thanks to them.

Whatever chemistry is required for incredible players to band together existed immediately, and the remaining outfield players worked hard to support them, defend and create chances to put the ball in behind opponents on counterattacks.

That style, a particularly taxing one, demanded a level of effort that Cherundolo’s teams sometimes fell short of.

Starting with Leg 1 in the CONCACAF Champions Round of 16 against 12-time Honduran champion Real España at the Estadio General Francisco Morazán in San Pedro Sula, expect a sweet spot approach – drawing out defenders keeping a low block, and exploiting spaces behind defenders with pace and transition – from new head coach Marc Dos Santos in 2026.

An assistant under Bradley and Cherundolo, Dos Santos’ first-choice tactics will be to possess the ball, counterpress and defend as far as possible from the LAFC goal, thus dominating games while attacking more through the inside with a 4-2-3-1 formation.

In preseason this was the overriding message to a roster that returns more than 20 players from last year, notably more than recent groups.

“I felt it was good because the players were very open to it,” Dos Santos, 48, said. “When you have a group that is open to it and wants to do things it’s easier. It’s not only me selling an idea that I believe in. It’s me selling an idea that they also believe in. That makes the preparation easier.”

LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington suggested a few weeks ago that the players were taking to the changes.

Dos Santos, a native of Montreal, said the same.

As did midfielder Timothy Tillman, who operated as an attacking midfielder – a “10” – this camp, which is indicative of the sort of tweaks Dos Santos and his technical staff instilled for how LAFC intends to play in 2026.

Venezuelan talent David Martinez, 20, should get a good look in this role, too, after inconsistency on the wings.

Canadian international Stephen Eustáquio is arguably the biggest piece to arrive in the winter. With young Brazilian defensive midfielder Igor Jesus on the mend from ACL surgery until after the FIFA World Cup, a six-month loan from Portugal’s FC Porto positions Eustáquio as critical.

“Amazing opportunity for us, not only as a midfielder but he’s a leader,” Dos Santos said. “He’s a coach on the field.”

The core of key contributors across Cherundolo’s tenure plus remaining players from the class who arrived in the same window as Son – center back Ryan Porteous and midfielder Mathieu Choinière – were bolstered by transfers who align with how Dos Santos envisions LAFC challenging opponents.

Ramping up the speed of their forwards, Jacob Shaffelburg (sidelined until at least next month as he recovers from groin surgery) along with Tyler Boyd and talented Swedish U22 attacker Amin Boudri, another option as a 10, illustrate where Dos Santos believes his lineup can lead.

LAFC at REAL ESPAÑA

What: CONCACAF Champions Cup, Round 1, first leg

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. PT

Where: Estadio General Francisco Morazán, San Pedro Sula, Honduras

TV/Radio: FS2, TUDN, 710 AM, 980 AM, 1230 AM