From goalkeeper Hugo Lloris’ perspective, the Los Angeles Football Club’s season-ending defeat last weekend in Vancouver was a reflection of the past nine months.
“Two faces,” Lloris expressed following LAFC’s penalty shootout playoff exit in the Western Conference semifinal.
A weak, passive start nowhere near the level of the moment led to a two-goal deficit at the break. A spirited, aggressive, proactive second half drew LAFC level. A dominant extra 30 minutes resulted in chance after chance to finish a game-winner that never came.
Dormant and down to active and fighting, the highs, lows and inconsistencies that defined LAFC’s 50 games from February to November seemed to emerge one by one in front of Lloris and the 54,000 fans watching inside BC Place.
The year provided plenty of examples.
LAFC confidently won against Columbus and Miami in CONCACAF Champions Cup games at home early in the season and a week later delivered timid, unsettled performances for the second legs on the road.
Middling MLS results made LAFC 9-7-5 in all competitions until the lightning strike of the Club World Cup. Beating Club América in the unexpected play-in game – LAFC’s best victory of the year – wasn’t a final but it certainly felt like one.
Advancing and opening the big-money FIFA tournament with a respectable effort against Chelsea FC, the second group stage contest against ES Tunis was the match LAFC expected to hunt for a win.
Instead, the Black & Gold showed up with the passivity they displayed in the first 45 minutes against the Whitecaps.
That experience, closing with a draw against Brazil’s Flamengo, left the team and its depleted roster feeling hungover.
Then the transformative summer window arrived, bringing superstar Son Heung-min to L.A. along with a cast of new players who made significant impacts over the second half of the year.
“We couldn’t find our way,” defender Sergi Palencia said. “And even on the pitch we were a little lost. The season was a little long for us.
“Sonny arrived and changed everything. He gave us hope. He gave us a lot of confidence. We started winning games like it was easy. He made us believe.”
In Vancouver, Son’s two goals, punctuated by an incredible free kick, sent the topsy-turvy game to extra time. But it wasn’t enough to save LAFC.
“I honestly thought we were going to win after these two amazing goals he had,” Palencia said.
Alas, during four years under head coach Steve Cherundolo, this was the first time LAFC played a full season without reaching a final.
“If we don’t make a final, everybody looks at LAFC and says it is not a good enough year,” defender Ryan Hollingshead said. “We love that. That’s what we want to be as a club.”
MLS is not designed for franchises to produce sustained success, yet even with Cherundolo’s self-imposed departure LAFC appears set up for 2026 and beyond.
Whoever becomes the club’s third head coach since its founding in 2018, will have a close-knit, battle-tested squad to work with.
On Wednesday, LAFC announced roster moves for its forthcoming ninth season in MLS.
Retaining the core that was built by John Thorrington and the front office over three busy years, LAFC has 21 players under contract going into 2026, with another five from this team expected to return, too.
Thomas Hasal is the lone goalkeeper currently on the roster.
Defenders include Lorenzo Dellavalle, Aaron Long, Kenny Nielsen, Ryan Porteuous, Eddie Segura, Artem Smolyakov, Nkosi Tafari, Hollingshead and Palencia.
Midfielders are Mark Delgado, Igor Jesus, Jude Terry, Timothy Tillman and Yaw Yeboah.
At forward, LAFC boasts Son and his prolific partner Denis Bouanga. They are supported by Jeremy Ebobisse, David Martínez, Nathan Ordaz and Adrian Wibowo.
LAFC exercised options on Wibowo, Nielsen, Tafari and Hasal. The club declined options on Alexandru Bǎluțǎ, Jailson, Adam Saldaña, David Ochoa and Ryan Raposo.
Lloris, 38, hopes to join LAFC for at least one more season. The club, which has an option on the French World Cup winner, is in talks to bring him back.
Raposo and fellow Canadian midfielder Mathieu Choinière, whose loan expires at the end of the year from Grasshopper Club Zürich of the Swiss Super League, are in talks to return. That is also true of Irish attacker Andrew Moran, on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion of the English Premier League, and American midfielder Frankie Amaya of Liga MX’s Toluca.
As loaded as LAFC is, the club continues to have an empty Designated Player spot to work with.
“Not only in soccer, in other sports, you see the teams that have been successful are teams that are built little by little,” Palencia said. “They get the core. They add some new things and they get successful like that. There’s no team that changes 50% every year and tries to go win it all. This doesn’t happen. So this is part of a process. I think this loss is terrible. It hurts a lot, but it’s part of one process that is going to keep going next year.”