Eleven games into this MLS season, LAFC had lost as many games as it had won and had scored as many goals as it had given up. The numbers were as mediocre as the team’s play — and mediocre wasn’t going to cut it for a franchise seeking a third straight trip to the MLS Cup final.
But those numbers didn’t add up for coach Steve Cherundolo, who thought the record didn’t reflect his team’s performance.
“I can create a statistic that puts me in a fantastic light. Any player can,” he said. “I can find one that puts them in a horrible light. So I try not to draw conclusions from that.
“What is fair to say is the team is playing better.”
With five straight wins — all shutouts — LAFC is playing better than any team in MLS as it returns from a two-week break Saturday in Orlando, Fla., the first game of a five-day road trip that also will take it to Austin next week.
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Defender Aaron Long said the team took its early struggles in stride, knowing they wouldn’t last.
“We were confident in our abilities,” he said. “Every team, throughout the season, goes through ups and downs right? We were in a little bit of a down moment, we had things that weren’t falling our way.
“Then we kind of got ourselves out of that and got over the hump. Now we feel like we’re on a roll.”
Well, they were on a roll, anyway. Because of the vagaries of the MLS schedule, LAFC’s most recent game was June 1. Long said most of the players used the break to heal and rest — he went to San Diego with his family for three days. But now they’re eager to get back to business.
“We feel like there’s a reset button,” he said. “We want to start the next stretch of the season as good as we can. It was good to go on the break on a high like that.
“The mood is good and we’re champing at the bit to get back out there.”
Cherundolo said LAFC’s uneven start was magnified by the team’s success in winning two Western Conference championships,…