LAFC’s 2023 season ended in rain, cold and disappointment at 6:07 p.m. Eastern time Saturday evening, which means its preparations for 2024 started at about the same time the Columbus Crew’s victory celebration did.
Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Crew in the MLS Cup final, which made first-year Columbus coach Wilfried Nancy the first Black manager to win the league title, brought the longest season in league history to an end while beginning the shortest offseason in franchise history. LAFC endured a 10-month, 53-game slog through four countries and two continents this year, covering more than 63,000 miles.
No team had ever attempted anything close to that.
Along the way the reigning MLS champion competed for six trophies, winning none. It played in three tournament finals — CONCACAF Champions League, Campeones Cup and MLS Cup — and lost all three.
Read more: LAFC’s bid for MLS Cup history undone by disastrous stretch in loss to Columbus
No other team had ever done that, either.
And it will start all over again soon, with MLS teams expected to open their training camps in mid-January and their seasons in late February. MLB and NBA teams had 3½-month offseasons; the NFL five months. LAFC gets less than five weeks.
John Thorrington, the team’s general manager, gets a lot less than that. He had to inform the league office Sunday which players will have their contract options exercised. The MLS trade window opens Monday, free-agent negotiations begin Wednesday and the re-entry process for out-of-contract players not eligible for free agency starts Thursday.
“That work has been going on,” Thorrington said. “Most of those decisions are fairly obvious and will be made. But the reality of the offseason, roster moves and all of that, that’s a very limited period of time. We always were working on that in the background, and we will be prepared for what comes this offseason.”
An offseason that will not only be the shortest in LAFC history but also among the busiest since contracts expired Saturday on more than a dozen players, including seven who started in the MLS Cup final. Some of those — midfielder Ilie Sánchez and defender Jesús Murillo — have options that could be triggered. Others — captain Carlos Vela, goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, midfielder Kellyn Acosta and defenders Diego…