Sunday, Oct. 12 | 4:00 p.m. PT | Sunday Night Soccer
🏟 | Q2 Stadium - Austin, TX
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Riding its longest winning streak in more than a year, LAFC travels to Austin, Texas, for a potential playoff preview matchup against Austin FC at Q2 Stadium.
Winners of six straight, LAFC stands in third place in the Western Conference (17W-7L-8D, 59 pts.) while Austin is in sixth place (12W-12L-8D, 44 pts.). Both teams have already earned berths in the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs, although their recent results have differed. Austin has lost three straight, including to Nashville in the U.S. Open Cup Final. Just prior to that, however, the Verde had notched impressive victories over fifth-place Seattle and fourth-place Minnesota.
Pending other results this weekend, an LAFC win could move the club into first place in the West headed into Decision Day on October 18, when the Black & Gold will finish its regular season in Colorado.
“We want to make this [winning] streak longer,” defender Sergi Palencia told the media after training on Friday. “We are in a really good moment now, with confidence, with a good rhythm, physically in a good spot, so we want to win these next two games to get to the playoffs in the best shape possible.”
SHIFT CHANGE
Sunday’s match in Austin was originally scheduled for July 5 but was postponed due to severe weather in Central Texas. The new date leaves each team without its top goal scorer on Sunday, among other missing pieces, due to the FIFA international window.
LAFC has scored 63 goals, third-most in all of MLS, but on Sunday the players who scored 38 of those goals—Denis Bouanga (24), Son Heung-Min (8), Nathan Ordaz (5), and Mathieu Choinière (1)—will be with their national teams. Additionally, Bouanga (eight assists) and Ordaz (five) are among LAFC’s top three setup men. In all, 16 assists will be absent from the Black & Gold roster in Austin.
LAFC responded well to this personnel shift at midweek, when Jeremy Ebobisse and Frankie Amaya provided the scoring in the Black & Gold’s convincing 2-0 win over Toronto FC.
Regarding the absence of scoring stars Son and Bouanga, Palencia said: “Of course we miss them. We miss Mathieu, we miss Nathan also. We have an amazing group and we always miss them when they are not here. But saying that also, it's like a challenge for us, being able to perform and to do well without these guys. It’s a challenge. We took it personal the other day and we said, ‘Without them we have to win, we have to still win, we have the tools to win.’ Look, Jeremy, David [Martínez], these guys, they would be starters in every team of MLS … and it's just a blessing having these kinds of players available when Sonny and Denis are not here.”
Ebobisse has scored four goals this season, and each one has made a difference. Two were matchwinners (including his 13th-minute strike against Toronto), while the other two extended a one-goal lead into a two-goal lead.
SCOUTING AUSTIN
Austin has scored the fewest goals in the Western Conference (35 goals in 32 games) but has conceded just 43 goals—the fifth-lowest total in the West—thanks in large part to goalkeeper Brad Stuver and fullback Guilherme Biro. Both were MLS All Stars this summer, and Biro scored the lone goal in Austin’s 1-0 win at BMO Stadium on March 15.
Striker Myrto Uzuni leads Austin in scoring with six goals, but the Albanian international will be in Europe this weekend competing in FIFA World Cup qualifying. Midfielder Owen Wolff is Austin’s top setup man (eight assists) and ranks second in goals (five). Wolff assisted Biro on the matchwinner against LAFC earlier this year with a corner kick that Biro headed home.
Uzuni’s absence means that 21-year-old forward CJ Fodrey will likely fill in. The southern California native has been an effective sub this season, providing attacking energy in his 20 appearances—19 off the bench.
Also missing for Austin due to international duty are Venezuelan midfielder Dani Pereira (25 MLS appearances, one goal, 4 assists), Ukrainian defender Oleksandr Svatok (28 appearances, one goal), and Costa Rican defender Julio Cascante (12 appearances).
AUSTIN CAN WIN IF
The weather stays hot. Forecasts in Austin call for temperatures in the low 90s on Sunday, with around 50 percent humidity—ideal terms when hosting a team playing its third game in eight days.
“Our story in Texas is we always struggle there,” said Palencia. “So we know we have to be humble, we have to know that it's going to be a tough game with a little bit of fatigue because it's the third game in one week, and without a lot of international players. So a lot of guys that played the other day, they will have to play again.”
“Thankfully we're in October and not in August,” said head coach Steve Cherundolo, “but it's generally speaking a very difficult place to play. And from our perspective every team gives LAFC their best shot and we expect the very same from Austin.”
LAFC CAN WIN IF
The team makes itself at home. The Black & Gold is unbeaten in 11 straight games on the road—the best away streak in MLS this year and the second-best in league history— and owns an all-time record of 3W-1L-1D at Q2 Stadium.
To improve on those marks LAFC will look to extend its current run of three straight clean sheets and 346 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal. The keys to this defensive run, according to Palencia, have been centerbacks Nkosi Tafari, Ryan Porteous, and Eddie Segura, who were placed together during the summer when injuries and an expired loan altered LAFC’s back line.
“These three central backs, they have been playing for two-and-a-half months together, and I think they understand each other really well,” Palencia said. “They have figured out how to play together, they know each other perfectly … And then in goal of course always we have a guarantee like Hugo [Lloris], that when we are not in our best moment he can save us. But I think especially the three center backs, they are doing an amazing job.”
