Preview | LAFC vs. Cruz Azul - Concacaf Champions Cup Quarterfinals - Leg One

Tuesday, April 7 | 7:00 p.m. PT

🏟 | BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA

🖥 | FS2, TUDN, ConcacafGO, Coupang Play (Korea)

📻 | 710 AM ESPN, ESPN LA App, KFWB 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish), & KYPA 1230 AM (Korean)

Unbeaten through ten matches for the first time in club history, LAFC returns its focus to Concacaf Champions Cup, welcoming Cruz Azul of Liga MX into BMO Stadium on Tuesday night for the first leg of their two-game, home-and-away matchup in the Quarterfinals of the region’s most prestigious club competition. 

The second leg will be played next Tuesday, April 14, at Estadio Cuauhtémoc in Puebla, Mexico, with the winner on aggregate (combined) goals advancing to the Concacaf Champions Cup Semifinals to face the winner of the Quarterfinal between Toluca (Liga MX) and Galaxy (MLS).

Concacaf Champions Cup is a 27-team continental tournament that takes place from February through May and features the top 27 teams in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The winner of the CCC Final on May 30 earns a berth in the FIFA Club World Cup in 2029.

FORM CHECK

LAFC is off to the best start in club history – and one of the best starts in MLS history – with an overall record of 8W-0L-2D, including 3W-0L-1D in Concacaf Champions Cup. The Black & Gold is the only unbeaten team in Major League Soccer, and is the first club in MLS history to record six straight clean sheets to start a season. In all competitions in 2026, LAFC has outscored opponents 24-3. At home, LAFC is 5W-0L-1D in all competitions, with clean sheets in five of those six games.

Goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris is coming off his strongest performance of the year thus far, a six-save effort in a 6-0 win over Orlando City on Saturday night that marked the former France captain’s 30th career shutout in MLS play in just over two seasons.  

Forward Son Heung-Min recorded four assists against Orlando and leads all of Major League Soccer with seven assists. Son’s four assists in Concacaf Champions Cup play this year rank second in the competition, and first among players whose clubs are still playing in the Quarterfinal round. 

Son’s main attacking partner, Denis Bouanga, tallied a hat trick against Orlando and has scored a team-high eight goals in 2026 across all competitions, including four in CCC play (tied for second-most in the competition).

HISTORY LESSON

LAFC has appeared in Concacaf Champions Cup (which was called Concacaf Champions League until 2024) four times in the club’s nine-year history and has reached the Quarterfinal round in all four appearances. LAFC advanced all the way to the CCC Final in 2020 and 2023 before falling short against Liga MX clubs Tigres UANL and Club León, respectively.

In this year’s CCC, the Black & Gold defeated Real España of Honduras in Round One and Alajuelense of Costa Rica in the Round of 16 to reach this Quarterfinal meeting with Cruz Azul.

Cruz Azul got here by advancing past Vancouver FC of the Canadian Premier League and fellow Liga MX power CF Monterrey.

ABOUT CRUZ AZUL

Founded in 1927 and nicknamed La Máquina (The Machine), Cruz Azul is the reigning CCC champion, having defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup Final. No club has won more CCC/CCL trophies than Cruz Azul’s seven (tied with Club América).

Cruz Azul is considered part of the Big Four of Mexican football – along with Club América, Chivas de Guadalajara, and Pumas UNAM – and is one of only seven Mexican clubs to have never been relegated from the country’s top division.

WE’VE MET BEFORE

The only previous meeting between LAFC and Cruz Azul was the Concacaf Champions League Quarterfinals on December 16, 2020. Due to COVID, ten months passed between that year's Round of 16 and the Quarterfinals, which was reduced to a single leg instead of two legs.

In an empty Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Carlos Vela scored LAFC’s opening goal on a penalty kick in the 38th minute. After Cruz Azul equalized, 19-year-old LAFC forward Kwadwo “Mahala” Opoku (currently with CF Montrèal) scored on a volley from distance to break a 1-1 tie in the 71st minute and send the Black & Gold to the Semifinals. 

Defender Eddie Segura (below) is the only current LAFC player who played in that match. 

That year (2020) LAFC became the first MLS team to beat three Liga MX teams in a single Concacaf tournament.

Cruz Azul’s current roster includes former LAFC defender and 2024 U.S. Open Cup hero Omar Campos, who starred in La Máquina’s Round-of-16 defeat of Monterrey last month, logging two assists in 178 mins.

SCOUTING CRUZ AZUL

Led by head coach Nicolás Larcamón, Cruz Azul is currently in second place in the Liga MX Clausura table with a record of 8W-2L-3D. The Mexico City-based club has scored 24 goals in league play and conceded 14 for a goal differential of +10. On Saturday night, Cruz Azul fell to league rival Pachuca 2-1, at Estadio Cuauhtémoc. (This season Cruz Azul is playing its home matches at Cuauhtémoc, 70 miles from Mexico City, due to renovations at its usual home, Estadio Azteca.

Twenty-one-year-old attacker Luka Romero has scored a team-high three goals for Cruz Azul in CCC 2026; all three came in a 5-0 win over Vancouver FC in Round One. At age 15, Romero became the youngest player to play in a top-five European League when he debuted for La Liga club Mallorca in 2020. 

Forward Gabriel Fernández has taken 14 shots in CCC play this year, third among all players in the competition. Fernández leads Cruz Azul and ranks seventh in Liga MX with seven goals in league play.

Argentine midfielder José Paradela scored a dramatic backheel equalizer for Cruz Azul in the second leg against Monterrey. In that pivotal match Paradela led his team in shots on target (4) and passes in the final third (20). Paradela leads Cruz Azul and ranks fourth in Liga MX with five assists in league play.

Veteran goal scorer Nicolas Ibañez (age 31) joined Cruz Azul two months ago from Tigres. He usually mans the number-9 spot atop La Máquina’s 3-4-2-1 formation. Ibañez has scored two goals in CCC this year. 

Cruz Azul has conceded just three goals in four CCC matches so far in 2026. Veteran goalkeeper Andrés Gudiño started both legs against Monterrey, while 20-year-old prospect Guillermo Ochoa started in Round One against Vancouver. The club is eagerly awaiting the return of goalkeeper Kevin Mier (age 25), who won the Best Goalkeeper Award in the 2025 CCC before suffering a broken leg in November. Last month Mier played his first match since his injury – a Liga MX fixture against Mazatlán.

LAFC CAN WIN IF

It lifts its level. While certainly impressive, LAFC’s unbeaten record in ten games so far this year was not built against teams with Cruz Azul’s quality or pedigree. Top Mexican clubs can afford to build world-class rosters without the constraints of a salary cap, whereas MLS teams play by different rules.

LAFC, which has arguably the deepest and most valuable squad in MLS, must draw from its unrivaled home support Tuesday night as it faces the most impressive roster its seen since facing Chelsea and Flamengo in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.   

CRUZ AZUL CAN WIN IF

It quiets the BMO Stadium crowd with a performance backed by a century of tradition. No Mexican team has played more Concacaf Champions Cup matches than Cruz Azul (119)—or logged more wins (69) or scored more goals (271). La Máquina made its first Champions Cup appearance in 1968, ten years before LAFC GM and Co-President John Thorrington was born.

That is the history that will march into LA on Tuesday night to face a club committed to making history of its own.