As his four-year run leading the Los Angeles Football Club nears an end, Steve Cherundolo wants to make the most of the team’s red-hot form by fixing where it can be better.
“The way we like to see things is we are constantly trying to improve and grow – even after winning six games in a row,” Cherundolo said Friday.
It’s been the 46-year-old American head coach’s experience that players who feel good about themselves, such as those he sees every day, are more receptive to critique than if things trend in a bad direction.
Coming off a third consecutive shutout victory, then, it is a great time to drill down on the “very detail-oriented work that we are currently finding ourselves in,” Cherundolo said.
On his improvement list: “Our ability to play out of pressure when teams are in a very compact block, whether teams are higher or lower; our positioning; focus on the type and quality of our pass; our decision-making as far as attacking spaces and opening up spaces.”
Recovering and preparing for a third contest in eight days, on Friday LAFC continued hammering out its imperfections.
“Today we saw mistakes that we made against Toronto and we tried to train to improve them,” said defender Sergi Palencia, a Cherundolo favorite who has started 30 of LAFC’s 32 regular-season games, including Wednesday’s decisive 2-0 home finale. “Every day we train a little bit to improve the mistakes and be the best team possible.”
Games in quick succession have limited opportunities to focus on these areas, but after Sunday’s rescheduled match at Austin FC, there will be space to do so heading into Decision Day and the postseason.
LAFC and Austin were supposed to conclude their season series July 5, but deadly weather in Central Texas prompted a postponement until mid-October.
Instead of facing a fatigued LAFC shortly after the Club World Cup, Austin now must deal with an opponent that is sprinting to the finish line.
LAFC has cleaned up on teams at or beneath the playoff line by bumping up its goal total to 63 and goal differential to plus-26.
Even missing international call-ups Son Heung-min, Denis Bouanga, Mathieu Choinière and Nathan Ordaz did not derail LAFC. To the contrary, the roster made the challenge of competing without their superstar attackers (and other important pieces) personal against Toronto.
“We said without them we still have to win,” Palencia said. “We have the tools to win.”
Circumstances haven’t changed for Austin (12-12-8, 44 points), which faltered with 3-1 defeats to Real Salt Lake and St. Louis City the past two weeks.
A seventh consecutive victory would match a stretch from Cherundolo’s MLS Cup-winning debut season in 2022 as the longest in club history.
A win or a draw also ties LAFC with the 2010 FC Dallas squad that went unbeaten on the road for a league-best 12 straight games, making them the second MLS team to produce back-to-back 60-point seasons in the process.
The last time LAFC came up empty in league play away from home was in early April. That outcome at Houston is notable for another reason: It’s the only regular-season defeat of the seven LAFC suffered against a foe that’s eliminated from MLS Cup playoff contention.
Sixth place in the West and in line to meet LAFC (17-7-8, 59 points) if the playoffs began today, Austin has just 35 goals – fewest by any team in the conference. A lone score at BMO Stadium in March was enough to take three points off LAFC, placing Los Verdes in the same happy group as San Diego (twice), Seattle, Vancouver and Portland.
“They don’t need many chances and they feel comfortable defending in a deeper block,” Cherundolo said. “They’re also difficult to break down.”
LAFC, of course, is working on that.
LAFC AT AUSTIN FC
When: 4 p.m. PT Sunday
Where: Q2 Stadium, Austin, Texas
TV/Radio: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV/710 AM, 980 AM, 1230 AM