Los Angeles FC will try for back-to-back victories following the World Cup when they host a Real Salt Lake side playing its first league match in about two months on Saturday night.
The Black and Gold resumed their campaign with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over the intracity rival Galaxy on Friday night, a result that moved LAFC (8-5-3, 27 points) into third in the Western Conference above fourth-place RSL (8-4-2, 26 points).
Son Heung-min scored his first goal of the season and Denis Bouanga scored his team-leading seventh from the penalty spot.
It was a team that looked refreshed from their time off, even if their opening tally through Mark Delgado came against the run of play. But the road will get challenging again quickly, with head coach Marc Dos Santos’ side set to play at least eight matches and potentially nine in August, including at least three in the upcoming Leagues Cup.
Dos Santos admitted that Bouanga, Son and others will have to submit to squad rotation during that stretch as the Black and Gold try to manage multiple pathways to a potential fifth major trophy in club history.
“What I have to do as coach of LAFC is to compete to win trophies all the time,” Dos Santos said. “To promise to win trophies is ridiculous. It’s too much parity in the league. … There’s a lot of good teams in the league. But what we want is to compete and try to win every trophy.”
Salt Lake last played in the league on May 23 in a 1-1 draw at Minnesota United, but tried to sharpen their match fitness with a 4-1 home friendly victory over Burnley of the EFL Championship a week ago.
Sergi Solans scored twice and Zavier Gozo and Diego Luna also contributed goals in the victory against an opponent working through their own preseason.
Overall, RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni was pleased, but also identified areas he wanted the Claret and Cobalt to improve upon before restarting their league campaign.
“Transition D is critical in this league, especially when you’re going up against Bouanga and Son,” Mastroeni said. “That’s got to be dialed in. And then our box defending. We’ve just got to do a better job of understanding … just little details that I think we can tidy up.”
–Field Level Media
