LOS ANGELES — Hopes for a big push from the Los Angeles Football Club heading into the Leagues Cup were dashed by an old friend on Friday night.
For the second time in a month and the third time this season, LAFC dropped three points at BMO Stadium, losing 1-0 to a Western Conference rival.
Angling to put some daylight between themselves and the visiting Portland Timbers, the Black & Gold instead fell flat and endured their second loss in a six-game stretch coming out of the FIFA Club World Cup.
Rather than vaulting toward the top of the table, LAFC (10-6-6, 36 points) has gone 3-2-1 since June 29, when it fell to Vancouver at home, and sits sixth in the West, a point behind the Timbers (10-7-7, 37 points) and 10 back of first-place San Diego (14-7-4, 46 points).
Capitalizing on a corner kick after a diving save by Hugo Lloris on a shot by David Ayala, Portland midfielder Cristhian Paredes slid into the middle of LAFC’s box and drilled a header that caromed off the far post for the Paraguayan’s first goal of the season and eventual game winner.
For the second consecutive half, LAFC conceded from a set piece on the final play. Last weekend, that meant sharing points with the Galaxy instead of winning another heated El Trafico. Less than a week later, LAFC at least had a chance to atone for its mistake prior to coming up short.
With Eddie Segura serving a one-match ban due to a red card he received against the Galaxy, and workhorse fullback Sergi Palencia back home in Spain as part of the process to receive his green card, LAFC’s makeshift defensive unit included Ryan Hollingshead, Artem Smoliakov, Nkosi Tafari and MLS debutant Kenny Nielsen.
A 5-foot-10 center back from Irvine who was drafted with the 57th overall pick out of Georgetown in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, Nielsen signed with the first team in March from LAFC2, where he started 11 games this year.
Mobile and calm on the ball, Nielsen, 23, fit in well and played through the final whistle, completing 93% of his game-high 98 passes.
“Just to get thrown in like that is not easy,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “Kenny’s not 17 or 18 years old, but he certainly doesn’t have a whole lot of experience in MLS. So we were proud of the effort. He learned a lot this week in training in preparation for this game.”
Though the concern coming in for LAFC was along the backline, the offense struggled to create moments and did not put a shot on target in the first half.
Making his last appearance as an LAFC player, winger Javairô Dilrosun’s short-term loan from Club América ended quietly. Following the 27-year-old Dutchman’s seventh consecutive start for LAFC after arriving prior to the Club World Cup, Dilrosun heads back to Liga MX with two MLS goals.
Dilrosun’s departure means LAFC has two Designated Player slots to fill. With the MLS secondary transfer window lasting through Aug. 21, reinforcements can’t come quick enough.
“At some point the batteries are empty,” Cherundolo said of his short-handed group, which has shed available options due to departures and injury concerns in recent weeks.
Two nights after starting and recording an assist in the MLS All-Star Game in Austin, Texas, star forward Denis Bouanga, the lone remaining DP on the roster, experienced one of his quietest nights of the year.
The MLS leader in total shots played 90 minutes but, with fatigue bogging him down, did not put either of his two attempts on frame.
On the few occasions when LAFC was dangerous, however, Timbers goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, who famously broke his leg with the Black & Gold in the triumphant 2022 MLS Cup final, stood tall.
Timbers head coach Phil Neville felt that Crépeau won the game for the visitors, but the 31-year-old Canadian international pointed to the entire team. “Everybody put in a shift,” he said, “and that’s why we won.” Reticent as Crépeau was to take the credit, Neville did have a point.
In the 56th minute, Crépeau defused LAFC’s best moment during the run of play when Smoliakov broke free down the left to deliver a hard pass across the face of goal. Nathan Ordaz struck it first time at point-blank range, however Crépeau laid out to deny the equalizer.
Twenty-two minutes later, Nielsen nearly stole the show when he lined up a bicycle kick inside the box that glanced off a defender’s face before Crépeau’s pure reaction save redirected the hopeful shot off the crossbar.
“In training I bring it out when I can, especially with the second team,” said Nielsen, who is the first player drafted by LAFC to start a match since Tristan Blackmon in 2021. “In games with them I’ve tried it a few times. Even at Georgetown I tried it. I wish it would have gone in tonight.”
The sequence preserved a third shutout for Portland in 19 all-time meetings against LAFC.
On the other end, Lloris, who assumed LAFC’s goalkeeping role after Crépeau and John McCarthy departed after 2023, kept his team in the game until the final whistle with a pair of strong saves in the second half. That wasn’t enough to prevent Portland’s first win at BMO Stadium in four years.
