What MLS commissioner Don Garber envisioned when he insisted on having two teams in Southern California was seeing both of them enter the final stretch of the season atop the conference table and fighting for the Supporters’ Shield.
It was a nice idea. But until this summer, that vision has been little more than a mirage.
The last time the Galaxy led the conference entering September was in 2015, a year after Chivas USA folded and three years before LAFC played its first game. Yet that’s exactly where the Galaxy (15-5-7) are now, leading second-place LAFC (14-5-5) with seven weeks to play.
And the Galaxy trail only Inter Miami in the Supporters’ Shield standings, where LAFC is fourth. So while the MLS Cup may not be played in Southern California this fall, whichever Western Conference team goes to the final will have to come through Los Angeles to get there.
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Despite the standings, it’s hard to argue that LAFC isn’t the best team in the West. It hasn’t lost to an MLS team not named the Columbus Crew since May 4, going 14-0-3. It has played in the last two MLS Cup finals, won the Supporters’ Shield in two of the last five seasons and reached the CONCACAF Champions League final in two of the last four seasons.
Though the Galaxy have been mostly MIA of late, since entering the league in 2018 LAFC has won more games, amassed more points and scored more goals than any team in MLS. And it’s not even close. Yet somehow the team keeps getting better.
Last winter general manager John Thorrington added goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who started the last two World Cup finals for France; he’s rewarded the team with a league-leading nine shutouts and a conference-low 30 goals allowed.
This month, Thorrington added Olivier Giroud, France’s all-time leading scorer, and he rewarded the team by scoring LAFC’s only goal in his first start in last Sunday’s League Cup final.
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Five seasons ago LAFC had the second-youngest team in MLS, but with Lloris, 37, Giroud, 37, and Kei Kamara, 39, all appearing in the League’s Cup final, the players used in that game…