John McCarthy isn’t sure what kind of greeting to expect Saturday when he steps on the field at BMO Stadium for the first time with a Galaxy crest on his chest.
McCarthy was the MVP in LAFC’s only MLS Cup win in 2022, then helped lead the team back to the championship game last season, posting career bests for starts (25) and shutouts (8). But the fact that doesn’t guarantee him a warm welcome isn’t because LAFC fans in the noisy north grandstand have short memories. It’s because their loyalties run deep.
And in the most passionate rivalry in MLS, that could make it hard even for someone like McCarthy, who gave LAFC its only ring, to get anything other than grief after jumping across town to the team’s hated neighborhood rival.
“If they boo me they boo me. If they don’t they don’t,” McCarthy said. “LAFC was great to me and I’ll always be great to them.”
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Except maybe on Saturday. The Galaxy are unbeaten through their first six games for the first time since 2010 while LAFC got off to the worst start in franchise history, winning just one of its first four, getting shut out in three of them. As a result this El Tráfico will still be the first since 2021 in which the Galaxy (3-0-3) — who lead the Western Conference and share the best record in MLS — will enter with the better regular-season record than LAFC (2-3-1).
That’s momentum McCarthy and his new teammates would like to build on in their biggest test since the opening game with Lionel Messi and Inter Miami.
“These games have a heightened emotion or have something that makes the stakes feel higher,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “It gets the attention of the players, of the fans. These games are really important for us. If you ever want to do something great in this game, in this league, the more of these types of games you can have, the better prepared you’re going to be when those moments come up.”
Another factor that could complicate McCarthy’s return to Exposition Park is the fact the Galaxy have LAFC to thank for their new goalkeeper. Early last season the team hired Will Kuntz as its senior vice-president of player personnel, just months after he left a similar position…