The Los Angeles Football Club wants off its early-season rollercoaster ride.
Stability was the message in training this week as LAFC seeks its first positive away result following losses in Salt Lake City, Minnesota and Colorado.
“We need to go prove that we can win on the road,” defender Ryan Hollingshead said. “In this league, to set yourself up for a good run in the playoffs you need home-field advantage, you need a high seed in the conference, so these road games are going to be huge for that.”
In the afterglow of a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the Galaxy at BMO Stadium last weekend, LAFC visits Providence Park and the Portland Timbers seeking to curtail those loop-the-loop sensations.
“That has determined the focus of the week, really,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “The players have reacted positively to that and I’m looking forward to an intense in-conference match. It always is tough in Portland.”
The two sides are evenly split in the regular season, sharing a 5-5-5 record, with the Timbers finding results on their artificial turf field, going 4-2-1.
Last week, Portland (2-3-2, 8 points) engineered its biggest comeback since joining MLS in 2011, rallying from three goals down during the last half hour to earn a point in Kansas City and end a three-match losing streak.
Prior to the late-game heroics, Portland head coach Phil Neville, the 46-year-old former Manchester United star, called his team’s first-half performance “unacceptable,” a failing of the basics and the group’s mentality.
However, five of the Timbers’ 14 goals have occurred in the last 15 minutes of matches, tops in the MLS to this point.
The Black & Gold (3-3-1, 10 points) head to the Pacific Northwest for the Timbers’ only home match over a half-dozen dates from the end of March through the start of May.
Saturday’s midday contest is the 200th regular-season MLS affair for LAFC since their debut in 2018.
For the second consecutive match, LAFC will cross paths with a beloved former goalkeeper.
After beating the Galaxy’s John McCarthy, LAFC will face Maxime Crepeau, who gets his chance to deny the club he started for in the previous two MLS Cup title matches.
Crepeau played 40 regular-season games for LAFC over two seasons, posting a 24-9-7 record.
The 29-year-old Canadian is, of course, remembered for sacrificing himself in the late stages of LAFC’s MLS Cup victory in 2022, and then recovering from the badly broken leg he suffered in that match to lead the defending league champions into the postseason the following year.
Unable to come to terms on a free-agent contract following LAFC’s unsuccessful repeat bid in Columbus, Crepeau moved on to Portland, where he has five starts under his belt in 2024. Crepeau has conceded two goals per game with the Timbers. His replacement at LAFC, French legend Hugo Lloris, has allowed 1.43 per game in seven starts.
“He’s just one of the best in the business,” Hollingshead said of Crepeau. “He’s a guy that gave everything for this club. He’s one of my close friends. I really enjoy him and his family.”
Speaking as competitors, the veteran fullback said the best way to “honor and respect” Crepeau’s legacy with LAFC would be to score a goal against him, knowing the goalkeeper will do everything he can to prevent that from happening.
LAFC AT PORTLAND
When: Saturday, 1:45 p.m.
Where: Providence Park, Portland, Oregon
TV/Radio: FOX (Ch. 11), Apple TV+ (Free)/710 AM, 980 AM
