Racing past the first quarter of the 2026 Major League Soccer season, six of the top eight teams in the Supporters’ Shield standings reside in the Western Conference.
While rehabbing from surgery after rupturing his Achilles tendon in July, LAFC center back Aaron Long had a ton of time to watch action across the league.
As the 33-year-old Californian built up his body to return to competition, which he did Wednesday starting and playing 45 minutes in a scoreless draw against Colorado at BMO Stadium, the MLS diehard thought he saw some real contenders, and maybe some others got better results than they should.
“Time evens out everything,” Long said Friday.
Opening with five wins and a draw in the regular season, two weeks ago LAFC stood atop the heap. Then they lost their first match, 2-1 in Portland, on the way to dropping eight points in the past three league contests, each versus conference opponents.
Falling back to the pack and seven points shy of San Jose, which won 4-1 at BMO Stadium on Sunday, LAFC has seen its recent MLS stumbles coincide with advancing to the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal, which commences Wednesday at BMO Stadium and ends May 6 in Toluca, Mexico.
“As this tournament comes to a close here as we get towards the World Cup and hopefully we’re in the final and lift a trophy, but once we get back to single-game weeks, I think we’ll have a lot of fun in this league,” Long said. “I feel like we’re super confident in our abilities, and in our roster and in our depth. So we’re very much looking forward to attacking it game by game, keeping ourselves as high as we can in the standings for now, and then when we have time to fully focus on the MLS we’ll do that.”
Currently third in the West behind the Vancouver Whitecaps and MLS-leading San Jose, “to be this close to the top is fantastic,” Long said.
Sharing identical records at 5-2-2 with Minnesota United FC, the Black & Gold hold an edge on goal differential (+10 to -2). One point behind them heading into the weekend, Seattle and Real Salt Lake round out the half-dozen Western teams among the top eight Supporters’ Shield spots. Nashville, a CCC semifinalist, and Inter Miami, which lost to LAFC 3-0 on opening day, represent the East.
“There are a lot of good teams on the West side,” LAFC midfielder Timothy Tillman said. “It just shows how much quality there is.”
Meeting a conference opponent for the third time this week, LAFC will play its 10th regular-season contest (No. 16 overall including Champions Cup) in a Saturday afternoon affair at Allianz Field in Saint Paul, Minn.
Minnesota can win a fifth straight match in MLS, further recovering from a sluggish start without the help of splashy Colombian signing James Rodriguez. The 34-year-old forward has 40 MLS minutes in three appearances. Ghanaian attacker Kelvin Yeboah leads Minnesota with five goals, all from inside the opponent’s six-yard box.
MNUFC, observed Long, is a “super talented group. Great attackers. Very disciplined defensively. And they don’t cheat. They have a lot of guys that work hard against the ball. They run hard. And it’s always a tough trip going to Minnesota. We have our work cut out for us.”
With Leg 1 looming versus Toluca, LAFC did not travel a full group.
Head coach Marc Dos Santos declined to say which players stayed behind in L.A. The last time he heavily altered the lineup was prior to a CCC quarterfinal against Cruz Azul, when Son Heung-min and Hugo Lloris were left off the matchday roster against the Timbers.
“I want to play every game at full roster, full capability, full fitness level, but it’s not a reality for us right now,” Dos Santos said. “So we have to be aware of that and make sure that we are careful.”
LAFC AT MINNESOTA UNITED FC
When: 1:45 p.m. PT Saturday
Where: Allianz Field, St. Paul, Minn.
TV/radio: FOX (Ch. 11), Apple TV/710 AM, 980 AM, 1230 AM