Charlotte FC Pays A Visit to Los Angeles
It would be a beautiful Saturday evening in Los Angeles as the Black and Gold welcomed Charlotte FC to the Banc. On this night LAFC would honor the late great Vin Scully. Just before the game there would be a minute of silence. Then the action would start and it would mark the first ever matchup between these two teams. As expected the home team took complete control of the first half. However, Charlotte had a few opportunities that came incredibly close to Crepeau’s goal. The first 45 minutes would end tied at 0 a piece. With LA having much more of the position and being more dangerous. However some imprecisions up top would leave the home team with a sour taste. It felt as if they weren’t in sync, with the top three attackers not timing their runs correctly. There would be a lot to correct in the seond half in order to walk out with a victory.
Charlotte Was Playing With Fire
With the start of the second half Charlotte had n0t done much to set themselves up to win or at least get a draw in this game. As it would only take LAFC 4 minutes to get the first goal of the match. A beautiful cross from Diego Palacios lead to a Jesus Murillo header and goal! With this goal Charlotte FC had a mountain to climb and was unprepared to do so. From there it would be all LAFC as they dominated Charlotte. LAFC wouls strike in the 60th minute once again, this time from a set piece. A misscomunication from the Charlotte keeper and his defender saw them crash into each other. Which in turn saw the ball skim off the keepers hand and fall into the feet of Cifuentes. From there he had an open net and an easy tap in making it 2-0 at that point. The party wouldnt stop as in the 73rd minute Vela got his 8th goal of the season and the route was on. You’d expect LAFC to take their foot off the pedal but nope they kept it on and continued to accelerate. As just three minutes later, in the 76th minute, Chicho Arango got in on the action. Scoring his team leading 12th goal of the season and the route was definitley on. As the great Billy Mays would say “But wait there’s more!” As LAFC would tack on another goal. A perfectly timed run from Latif Blessings left him one-on-one. Where after a series of rebounds his shot would be redeflected back into the goal and the final blow for Charlotte would be an own goal. LAFC is looking mighty dangerous and as mentioned its MLS Cup or bust now.
This Team is Special
What has made this team incredible has been the tremendous amount of depth they have. Tonight against Charlotte, LAFC started with Eddie Segura and Jesus Murillo as their two center backs! With Chiqui Palacios and Ryan Hollingshead as there full backs. It is incredible to see what they can do with so many pieces. You can literally swap one player out for another and their performance is still top notch. Even with Bale and Chiellini both out due to load management their absence was not even noticed. Then you have players like Ilie Sanchez who has been a corner-stone of this team! The Spanaird has been irremovable from the squad and has started in 22 of the 24 matches played. Along with Maxime Crepeau who has been really solid in goal and his partner John McCarthy has also done a great job when called upon. Up and down the lineup the depth is incredible and for every starter there is at least one or two more following closely behind. Getting ready to pounce at an opportunity to start. This is a great issue for Steve Cherundolo as the season is and will continue to be long. Rotating players and positions are a necessity and with the way the front office has worked it has made Cherundolo’s job hard but in a good way. As it has been stated the only result that matters this season is brining home a MLS Cup. If not it will feel like a major dissapointment for the club and the season.
