LAFC’s CONCACAF Champions League title dreams shattered in loss to León

LAFC has made a habit of collecting trophies at its fortress-like stadium in Exposition Park, bringing home two Supporters’ Shields and an MLS Cup in the past four seasons. No MLS team has won more.

But LAFC let the biggest prize slip through its hands Sunday, losing to León 1-0 in the CONCACAF Champions League final, the region’s most important club competition. That result, combined with last week’s 2-1 victory in Mexico, gave León a 3-1 victory in the two-leg playoff, which is decided by the aggregate score over both games.

For León, whose only goal came from Lucas Di Yorio midway through the first half, the CONCACAF title was its first and it came in the team’s second appearance in the final, the last coming in 1993, when the competition had a different name and format. The win also gave Liga MX clubs 17 of the last 18 Champions League titles and 38 in 58 tournaments overall.

For LAFC, Sunday’s loss was just its 15th in 104 games at home. But it was also the second in four years in the Champions League final.

And LAFC’s fate may have been sealed before kickoff when coach Steve Cherundolo decided to jettison the fluid attacking style his team has used to great success the last two seasons. After being punished by León’s speed and wide play in the first leg, Cherundolo made five lineup changes for the second, choosing to defend with a five-man back line, releasing the two outside backs — Diego Palacios and Sergi Palencia — to roam forward in the attack.

León made them pay for that in the 20th minute, catching Palacios playing narrow and up the field to score the game’s only goal on a counterattack.

The sequence began with a low through ball from Angel Mena in the middle of the LAFC half that found Ivan Moreno with loads of open space on the right wing. Moreno dribbled to the edge of the penalty area before delivering a cross to Di Yorio on the other side of the box and the Argentine forward did the rest, spinning to his right to avoid defenders and one-timing a right-footed shot off the hands of LAFC goalkeeper John McCarthy.

LAFC goalkeeper John McCarthy and defender Aaron Long (33) try to stop a shot by León midfielder Lucas Di Yorio during the second half Sunday.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

It was the sixth goal McCarthy had allowed in seven Champions League games, half of them coming against León. And Mena had a hand in all three, scoring one and setting up the other.

LAFC forced León keeper Rodolfo Cota into just one easy save in the opening half but came close to scoring on two other occasions, with Aaron Long heading a Carlos Vela free kick just wide of the left post in the 11th minute and Kellyn Acosta rolling a left-footed shot wide of the other post in the 41st minute.

Midway through the second half LAFC, which had been held scoreless in the tournament, was so desperate for offense Cherundolo took off Vela, his captain, and replaced him with rookie Stipe Biuk. It really didn’t make much of a difference, though, with LAFC’s best look coming in the 80th minute when Denis Bouanga, the tournament’s leading scorer with seven goals in eight games, drilled a shot into the side netting.

Then in stoppage time Timothy Tillman one-hopped a header right at Cota, who gobbled it up. By that point the team’s unhappy fans had begun expressing their frustration by raining beer down on an injured León player.

LAFC is the first MLS team to play in the Champions League final twice under the current format, which also makes it the first MLS team to lose twice as well, the first defeat coming in 2020, when COVID forced the tournament to be played at a neutral site, robbing the team of its significant home-field edge. That advantage did LAFC little good Sunday.

For MLS commissioner Don Garber, however, the loss is part of a process. With the Seattle Sounders winning the Champions League a year ago, MLS teams have made the final in consecutive years for the first time this century. That’s progress, he said.

“We don’t have history yet. That history is being made,” Garber said of in comparing his league with the one in Mexico, which had a half-century head start. “We’ve got a lot of time. Our best days are still ahead.”