LAFC Faces St. Louis City Following Two Consecutive Losses

After an impressive start to the season, Los Angeles FC enters Wednesday night’s match against host St. Louis City following two heavy losses.

LAFC (6-3-3, 21 points) suffered a 4-0 defeat at Toluca on May 6 in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal tie, sending Toluca to the final with a 5-2 aggregate scoreline. Four days later, Los Angeles lost 4-1 to the visiting Houston Dynamo.

Head coach Marc Dos Santos stated that LAFC’s Champions Cup run, which resulted in a compressed schedule, has affected the players.

“There’s a correlation with that push you do in Champions (Cup) while you’re playing in the league that has to be maybe thought about a little bit better in the future, because it’s been hard mentally for us and physically,” Dos Santos said.

St. Louis City (2-6-3, 9 points) broke a 0-3-2 skid in league play by securing their first road win of the season with a 1-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday. That match featured 37 fouls and seven yellow cards, ending with both teams down a man.

Jeong Sang-Bin, making his sixth appearance of the season and just his third start, scored his first goal of the season in the 26th minute.

“That’s the reward for how (good) he’s been for the past few weeks. I think he’s put his head down, and he puts a ton of work in, and I’m happy for him that he (got) a reward with the goal,” said St. Louis head coach Yoann Damet.

St. Louis City midfielder Chris Durkin was sent off after picking up two yellow cards against Colorado and will miss Wednesday’s match.

On the other hand, LAFC defender Sergi Palencia suffered an apparent groin injury against Houston and will be sidelined until after the World Cup break.

St. Louis’s 10 goals are tied for the second-fewest in the league, while LAFC has allowed 12 goals, marking the fifth-fewest in MLS.

LAFC holds a strong all-time record of 5-0-2 against St. Louis, with Son Heung-Min leading MLS with eight assists.