Tuesday, March 17 | 6:00 p.m. PT
🏟 | Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto - Alajuela, Costa Rica
🖥 | FS1, TUDN, ConcacafGO, One Soccer (Canada), Coupang Play (Korea)
📻 | 710 AM ESPN, ESPN LA App, KFWB 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish), & KYPA 1230 AM (Korean)
Advancement in the region's most prestigious club competition is on the line Tuesday night as LAFC looks to extend its run in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup with a trip to Costa Rica for the second leg of its two-game series against Alajuelense in the Round of 16.
The two sides are tied on aggregate goals, 1-1. The winner on aggregate goals will move on to face Cruz Azul or Monterrey in the CCC Quarterfinals and take another step toward reaching the CCC Final on May 30. LAFC has competed in the Concacaf Champions Cup Final twice in its brief history (2020, 2023) but has yet to lift the trophy. This year's champion will earn a berth in the FIFA Club World Cup in 2029.
OFF TO ALAJUELA
Last Tuesday’s 1-1 draw between the two clubs at BMO Stadium left LAFC with a daunting task in the second leg: obtain a result 2,700 miles from home, at Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto in Alajuela, Costa Rica. If LAFC wins Tuesday's match outright, or draws by any score other than 0-0 or 1-1, then the Black & Gold will advance to the CCC Quarterfinals for the second consecutive year and the fourth time in club history. A 1-1 tie over 90 minutes will send the series to two, 15-minute periods of extra time, and possibly a penalty shootout. A 0-0 draw or an Alajuelense win would knock LAFC out of the competition.
“This team, we want to win everything,” midfielder Mathieu Choinière said after scoring twice in LAFC’s 2-0 win over St. Louis on Tuesday night. “The mentality of this club is: every competition, every game, we want to win it. So we're switching already to Costa Rica right now. We want to qualify and go as far as we can and win this trophy.”
WHERE THINGS STAND
LAFC outshot Alajuelense 28-4 in last week’s 1-1 stalemate in the first leg, but could only put one shot past Alajuelense goalkeeper Washington Ortega, as the Costa Rican club sat back and defended for most of the match. The 1-1 result went precisely according to plan for the visitors, giving Alajuelense a chance to advance on Tuesday on their home pitch.
In LAFC’s only previous visit to Costa Rica, the club defeated Alajuelense 3-0 in the first leg of the 2023 Concacaf Champions League Round of 16 thanks to a Denis Bouanga hat trick, his first ever for the Black & Gold. LAFC would win that series 4-2 on aggregate after returning home to LA and enduring a 2-1 defeat.
“Our attitude was good,” LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said after last week's first-leg draw, “creating chances, trying to get in behind. They defended with a lot of numbers. I told the guys, ‘Stay positive, [keep your] head up, it's 1-1, we're going over there. Last time we played them here we lost the game. There's games like that … Draws like this, if we play like this, nine out of ten times we’re going to win.”
CAT AND MOUSE
The question headed into Tuesday night is whether Alajuelense will come out of its tactical shell and play more openly, or remain bunkered and rely on sporadic counterattacks. Concacaf teams in Mexico and Central America—and the U.S. and Canada for that matter—typically do not like to play conservatively in front of their home fans, if only for pride’s sake.
Last week, LAFC registered the first 13 shots of the game as Alajuelense placed almost every player inside their own 18-yard box to congest the space and rely on Ortega, their Man of the Match goalkeeper, to make the occasional save. “That's what teams do and that's gonna be a challenge," Dos Santos said. "But they do that because we're good. It's a credit to our team.”
If Alajuelense does advance from its own half and play more vertically, there will be more space behind its back line for LAFC forwards Denis Bouanga, Son Heung-Min, and others, to attack. Bouanga’s equalizer in last week’s first leg was his fourth goal of the 2026 Champions Cup, making him the top scorer in the competition this year. He has 14 all-time goals in Concacaf play, including four against Alajuelense.
“I think the group knows what it's going to take,” LAFC midfielder Ryan Raposo said. “It's going to be a hostile environment, loud environment, they obviously have hope from the first leg. We need to go out there, be fearless, and be a mature team. It may not happen in the first five minutes, the goal might happen in the 90th, and we have to be prepared for that.”
LAFC forward Nathan Ordaz, who also plays for El Salvador’s national team, said: “It's a whole different experience playing against a Costa Rican team. They defend a little bit different. The tactics were definitely different … Yeah, it reminds me of those games with El Salvador. Those Central American countries are just so aggressive, and they like to hit you.”
LAFC WILL WIN IF
Defenders Eddie Segura, Ryan Porteous, and Nkosi Tafari keep playing lights out. LAFC has only conceded two goals so far in 2026 on its way to a 6W-0L-1D record in all competitions, and these three are among the main reasons why. If LAFC can hold Alajuelense scoreless, as they have done with five of the seven opponents they have faced this year, and can find the net at least once, the Black & Gold will move on to the Quarterfinal.
ALAJUELENSE CAN WIN IF
It parks the bus and gets another big game from Ortega in goal. Those tactics worked to perfection last Tuesday in LA. Duplicating that strategy, and the result, will be a different matter in Alajuela, however, especially if LAFC finds space to get out and run.
