Olivier Giroud has played in two World Cup finals, won both a Champions League and Europa League title and scored more goals for France than any player in history.
There aren’t many things in soccer that he hasn’t experienced.
Sunday, however, will bring something new: the playoffs. In Europe, where Giroud has spent all but the last three months of his 20-year professional career, finishing atop the league standings means you’re the champion. In MLS, where he plays now, it only means you’ve qualified for the playoffs, where everybody starts over again.
It can be a difficult concept to grasp.
Read more: The road to MLS Cup runs through LAFC and BMO Stadium
“I asked the boys to explain it to me. And now I understand that if we go through this first knockout stage, we will play the semifinal of the conference, and then the final and then there is an MLS Cup final,” Giroud said. “That’s it.
“It’s different for me so I need to adapt. It’s the American style. You finish first [in] the regular season and then you can be out two weeks after [in the playoffs]. It is a bit strange. But it’s like that.”
LAFC opens the postseason at BMO Stadium against the Vancouver Whitecaps in the first game of a best-of-three series. The teams are familiar rivals, having met nine times in the past two years, including in the first round of last season’s playoffs. LAFC is 6-1-2 in those nine games.
The Galaxy, who joined LAFC atop the conference table but were seeded second in the playoffs on a tiebreaker, will meet the Colorado Rapids in their postseason opener at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday. That series is also a best-of-three while the next three playoff rounds, including the MLS Cup final, are single-elimination games.
“We’re not just happy to be in the playoffs. We actually think we have a team that can compete to win the championship,” said Galaxy coach Greg Vanney, whose team won both its regular-season games with Colorado. “We’ve got to go out now and we’ve got to perform and there’s a whole process of getting to that moment. And it won’t be an easy process.
“Now we’ve got to go execute.”
Read more: LAFC co-founder taking a different approach with San Diego FC launch
Giroud will enter the playoffs looking…