Eddie to the Rescue: LAFC’s Leagues Cup Surge and its Path to the Quarterfinals

When Eddie Segura entered Saturday night’s Leagues Cup match against Toluca in the 58th minute, along with Ryan Porteous, it didn’t appear to be an attack-minded substitution.

The Toluca match - LAFC’s second in Phase One of Leagues Cup 2026 - was tied 0-0 and the Black & Gold had 30 minutes left to find a winner if it hoped to advance in the 36-team MLS-vs.-Liga-MX competition. The Black & Gold also had to stave off the attack of the reigning Concacaf Champions Cup winners, the same side that had dropped four goals on LAFC in 40 minutes the last time they met, in May’s CCC Semifinals. 

To that point in the match, Helinho, Toluca’s gifted, 25-year-old Brazilian attacker, the priciest transfer in club history, had been the Red Devils’ most dangerous weapon, drifting up and down the right channel, creating chances or taking them himself, including a right-footed rocket that had been punched away by diving LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in the 33rd minute. 

Onto the pitch stepped the 29-year-old Segura – the Black & Gold’s longest-tenured player, the club’s all time leader in appearances and minutes played, and over the last two years its Swiss army knife, capable of playing several positions. The role he was assigned in this instance was left back in LAFC’s malleable 3-4-3 formation. Specifically, he was tasked with neutralizing Helinho.

Segura entered a chippy, combative contest that would see 27 total fouls called before it was over, with nearly that amount going unwhistled. There would be no opportunity to grow into the game or find his footing.

What followed was a performance reminiscent of the Eddie Segura of 2019, when he partnered with Walker Zimmerman to provide the defensive foundation of the best regular-season in LAFC history. Segura started 33 of 34 MLS matches that year and led LAFC in regular-season minutes as the second-year club led the league in fewest goals conceded and goal differential on its way to the 2019 Supporters’ Shield. 

Segura's impact on Saturday's match was both immediate and enduring. A log of his actions against Toluca reads like this:

Another influential substitute came on for LAFC in the 84th minute, Jacob Shaffelburg.

At the 90:30 mark, with 90 seconds remaining in stoppage time, Segura played a pass out of the back to midfielder Mark Delgado, who released Shaffelburg down the left touchline. Segura jogged forward as Shaffelburg sent a left-footed cross into the area. The pass was headed away … right to the waiting Segura, who settled it with his first touch then struck it with his second, curling it around the outstretched arms of Toluca goalkeeper Hugo González and into the Toluca net.

“What a finish,” head coach Marc Dos Santos said. “What a finish. I didn't know the ball went in then I watched the big screen, the replay. What a good finish. It's a reward for all the work that you guys don't see but I see in training.”

“Honestly, I'm happy,” a beaming Segura said in Spanish after the match. “You don't always get the chance to help the team in attack like that. And on top of that, it was a goal that secured the three points. So yeah, very happy and pleased with the team's overall effort today.”

• ALSO READ: The Ballad of Eddie Segura (March 2024)

Football can be unglamorous, especially tournament football. Sometimes it’s just a matter of holding the opponent scoreless for as long as possible while giving your gamebreakers a chance to win it at the end. It is an approach that LAFC has leaned into when needed. On Saturday, Segura did both jobs.

“What I believe in life is the effort you put in when nobody watches is gonna reward you," Dos Santos said, "and Eddie is a player that always trains with a good mindset. We ask him to play right back, defensive midfielder, center back, left back. He never cries about it. [He] is the type of player that if you have a white sheet and you start building a roster in this league, [he is] number one, because he could help so much in the roster. [Tonight’s] goal is the reward for so much that he does when nobody watches. I'm very happy for him. And it's a good example for the rest of the players.”

“WE HAVE TO GO FOR IT”

By Sunday night, all 36 teams in the tournament had played two of their three Phase One matches. In Leagues Cup, only eight of 36 teams (22 percent) advance to the knockout rounds -- unlike, say, this summer's FIFA World Cup, in which 32 of 48 teams advanced (67 percent). 

Only four of 18 MLS teams move on.

• ALSO READ: Leagues Cup Explainer

LAFC is currently in 7th place in the tournament's MLS table. The Black & Gold probably needs to defeat Querétaro in regulation time at BMO Stadium on Wednesday night in order to advance to the Quarterfinals. Scoring multiple goals and posting a clean sheet would also help LAFC leapfrog some of the six teams above it, as LAFC currently holds the smallest goal differential (+1) among the leaders. Having a few of the those six teams lose would also be advantageous.

“We have to go for it,” Dos Santos said. “We put ourselves in this position, now we have to go for it again … Look, it's hard but right now we have put ourselves in a position that we could arrive in the final eight so we have to go for it. We didn't do all this work in these two games to now not push in the third one.”

On LAFC’s side in Wednesday's Querétaro match is the home energy at BMO Stadium, where LAFC has an 8W-0L-4D mark in Leagues Cup play. Overall, LAFC has only lost once to a Liga MX club in Leagues Cup (4W-1L-3D) -- the lone defeat coming in 2023, when Monterrey fought back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat LAFC 3-2 in the Leagues Cup Quarterfinals at the Rose Bowl. 

"We’re a team that always wants to compete for everything, and we’re still in the hunt," Segura said in Spanish. "So we’re going to keep working and fighting for that goal, which is very important to us."

“It takes close to nine points to qualify for the next round," Dos Santos added, "but for me the most important [thing] is the mindset of our guys with these games, how serious they are about it, how much they want to push the game. After that, if you qualify or not, I'm already pleased with the mindset ... We wanted to win today to get to five points and be close, and have a big chance on Wednesday. That's the only thing we can control. All the rest is totally out of our control.”

ODDS & ENDS

Through the first two rounds of Phase One, only three of 36 Leagues Cup matches have ended in draws and gone to penalties.

This Saturday August 15, LAFC returns to MLS regular-season play when it hosts San Diego FC at BMO Stadium at 7:30 p.m. PT. Select tickets are still available.

LAFC plays its final game in Phase One of Leagues Cup on Wednesday, August 12, against Querétaro at BMO Stadium. That match is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. PT and will be broadcast on Apple TV. Local radio coverage will be available on 710 AM ESPN, the ESPN LA app (English), 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish), and KYPA 1230 AM (Korean).