With advancement to the Concacaf Champions Cup Quarterfinals on the line, LAFC heads to Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio, for the second and final leg of its CCC Round of 16 matchup with the Columbus Crew. The match will be broadcast live on FS2 and ViX, with kickoff scheduled for 5:30 p.m. PT.
LAFC holds a 3-0 aggregate-goals advantage in the series by way of its 3-0 home win over Columbus in last week’s first leg. The winner on aggregate (combined goals in both games) will move on to face the winner of Inter Miami’s Round of 16 clash with Jamaican side Cavalier FC. Miami leads that matchup 2-0 on aggregate headed into Leg 2 this Thursday night.
LEG 1 RECAP
Denis Bouanga scored on either side of halftime and Nathan Ordaz added a late goal off the bench to seal LAFC’s 3-0 victory over Columbus at BMO Stadium last Tuesday. The Black & Gold held just 32 percent possession but used that time well, putting nine shots on target compared to just one for the Crew.
“Effort was a deciding factor for us tonight,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said after the match. “Columbus is one of the hardest working teams in the league. You have to outrun them if you want to beat them.”
The win marked the third time that LAFC has claimed the first leg of a Concacaf series by a 3-0 scoreline. LAFC went on to win both previous series in which it held that advantage.
SINCE LEG 1
Both teams rotated their rosters for their respective MLS regular-season games over the weekend. Columbus played a scoreless draw at home against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday. The Crew rested three starters who were on the field at the beginning of Leg 1 against LAFC – defenders Steven Moreira and DeJuan Jones, and attacker Aziel Jackson – although Jackson came on in the second half against Houston.
The Crew carried 62 percent possession against Houston, out-passed the Dynamo 598-346, and held them to a single shot on target.
LAFC traveled to Seattle and suffered its first loss of the year in MLS play, 5-2, to the Sounders. Eight players were rotated out of the starting eleven that Cherundolo put on the field against the Crew last week. Defenders Sergi Palencia and Aaron Long, and midfielder Mark Delgado were present for the opening kick in Seattle, while customary starters Bouanga, Igor Jesus, Ryan Hollingshead, and David MartĂnez came on as second-half substitutes, with MartĂnez scoring in stoppage time for his first goal of 2025.
TRAVELING WELL
In its history, LAFC has played six matches in opposing stadiums in Concacaf Champions Cup play and stands 2W-3L-1T in those matches, conceding seven goals while scoring nine.
LAFC’s most recent CCC away match was a 2-1 loss in Colorado, in sub-freezing temperatures, on Feb. 18, 2025. Tuesday’s weather forecast in central Ohio calls for mostly sunny skies, with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the upper 30s, with a 5 percent chance of precipitation.
BEEN HERE BEFORE
The last time LAFC visited Columbus was the 2024 Leagues Cup Final, which the Crew won 3-1, scoring two goals after the 90-minute mark to break a 1-1 deadlock.
LAFC has been in Columbus’ position before—that of needing a decisive home result to advance out of the Round of 16. Five years ago, LAFC trailed León 2-0 on aggregate headed into Leg 2 of their Round of 16 series. The Black & Gold pulled off a 3-0 upset in LA, which made LAFC the first U.S. club in Concacaf history to defeat a Liga MX team after a multi-goal, first-leg deficit.
WHAT IS CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP?
North American club soccer’s biggest prize, Concacaf Champions Cup is a 60-year-old competition that pits the 27 best clubs in the continent against one another until a champion is crowned in June. That champion earns an invitation to the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup and 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup.
LAFC reached the Concacaf Champions Cup final in each of its two previous appearances, in 2020 and 2023.
NO CUCHO
All-purpose attacker Cucho Hernández departed Columbus over the winter after scoring 44 regular-season goals for Wilfried Nancy’s side from 2022 to 2024, not counting the two he netted in the Crew’s 3-1 win over LAFC in last year’s Leagues Cup Final. The Colombian international was a coveted piece on the global market and was acquired by Spanish top-tier side Real Betis, for whom he has yet to score through four starts in league play in 2025.
LAFC WILL ADVANCE IF
It walks the tightrope between pushing for an early goal that would increase its aggregate-goal lead to 4-0, and preventing an early Crew goal that would cut that lead to 3-1 and give the hosts confidence in their home ground.
Twenty-one-year-old forward Nathan Ordaz has been effective lately, scoring in two straight matches for LAFC, including his 81st-minute strike against the Crew last week. Ordaz scored the first regular-season goal of his MLS career, and the only goal on the night for LAFC, in their 5-1 defeat at Columbus’ hands in July 2024.
COLUMBUS CAN ADVANCE IF
The early attacking push they are expected to unleash in the opening minutes results in a breakthrough goal that opens the possibility of a second. Cucho is gone, but former LAFC forward Diego Rossi and 22-year-old Canadian international Jacen Russell-Rowe remain dangerous. Each has scored twice in MLS play so far this season.
LAFC returns to MLS regular-season play on Saturday, March 15, when it faces Austin FC at BMO Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:45 p.m. PT. *Season ticket information*. Single-game *ticket info*.
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