With nine games left in the regular season, Los Angeles FC are solidly in the hunt for the top seed in the Western Conference standings.
Ahead of a road match on Saturday night against last-place Sporting Kansas City, Los Angeles (11-7-7, 40 points) knows it has to take advantage of its lackluster opponent.
Head coach Marc Dos Santos’ team has gone four straight matches without a loss (1-0-3), but is coming off its first victory since July 25. Los Angeles, which is tied with FC Dallas for third in the West, blanked the New York Red Bulls 2-0 on Wednesday.
Prior to Wednesday and a 2-2 draw with Real Salt Lake last Saturday, Los Angeles had scored just two goals across its previous five games. Dos Santos hopes the sudden reemergence of the offense is a sign of things to come.
“It’s a hard league and we don’t take winning for granted at all,” Dos Santos said. “We’ve been challenged lately and I think the guys and the group have kept together. … There’s been a few games that we didn’t finish, for example in Salt Lake. It installs the fear of losing in our guys a little bit, but I’m excited about the future of this group.”
Denis Bouanga leads Los Angeles with 12 goals, while Son Heung-Min has added five goals and a team-best 11 assists. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has helped the club allow just 24 goals — second only to Vancouver’s 21 for fewest in the conference.
Los Angeles enters its first of three consecutive road matches three points behind the Houston Dynamo for second in the West and six behind Vancouver.
Kansas City (4-16-3, 15 points) enters the week below everybody. Riding a three-game losing streak and a seven-game winless stretch, head coach Raphael Wicky’s club is 11 points behind the closest team in the Western standings, Austin FC.
As far as positives to take into 2027, Kansas City just posted its second three-goal output of the season. In a 4-3 loss to Dallas last Saturday, rookie Taylor Calheira netted the first two goals of his MLS career.
“Super grateful to get my first MLS goals, but not proud of the result,” Calheira said. “We’ve just got to be better. We’ve got to finish out games better as a collective group, top to bottom.”
Since trading away top scorer Dejan Joveljic to Seattle on Aug. 25, Stephen Afrifa and Calvin Harris are left as the team’s leading scorers with three apiece this season.
–Field Level Media
