Tuesday, March 10 | 8:00 p.m. PT
🏟 | BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA
🖥 | FS2, 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)
BMO Stadium opens its doors to the world once again as LAFC, amid the best start in club history, welcomes L.D. Alajuelense on Tuesday night for the first match in their two-game, home-and-away series in the Round of 16 of Concacaf Champions Cup.
LAFC is coming off a 1-0 victory over FC Dallas in MLS regular-season play on Saturday night in which the Black & Gold extended its season-opening, franchise-record winning streak to five straight games – including three in MLS play – behind a 55th-minute wondergoal from David Martínez.
Now the club must shift back to the cutthroat world of Concacaf Champions Cup (CCC), the most prestigious trophy in the region, which is chased by the top 27 clubs in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, doing battle over four rounds to reach the CCC Final on May 30, 2026.
Costa Rican club Alajuelense – also known as Los Leones (The Lions) or Rojinegros (Red-and-Blacks) – is one of the most successful clubs in Central America, and faces LAFC in CCC play for the second time in history.
PREVIOUS MEETING
In 2023, LAFC advanced past Alajuelense 4-2 on aggregate to advance to the CCC Quarterfinals. That journey began three years ago this week, when LAFC’s Denis Bouanga scored his first career hat trick for the Black & Gold, leading LAFC to 3-0 win over Alajuelense in the first leg in Costa Rica.
Alajuelense outscored LAFC 2-1 in Los Angeles a week later but the Black & Gold held its aggregate-goal edge and moved on to face Vancouver in the 2023 CCC Quarterfinal. LAFC defeated the Whitecaps 6-0 on aggregate, then got past Philadelphia Union (4-1 agg.) to meet Club Leon of Liga MX in the Final, where LAFC’s run finally ended, 3-1. It was LAFC’s second trip to the CCC Final.
“It would be a great story to win Concacaf for the first time,” said midfielder Timmy Tillman, who played in both matches against Alajuelense in ’23, “but I think we just have to focus on every single game. It's going to happen step by step. We can't think of the Final before we're playing the Round of 16.”
TWO LEGS
These two clubs will meet again next week in Costa Rica for the second leg, with the winner on aggregate goals advancing to a Quarterfinal matchup against the winner of the Round of 16 series between Cruz Azul and Monterrey. To get there, LAFC must perform well at home on Tuesday, and go again next Tuesday at Alajuelense’s notorious Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto, with its 19,000 capacity and artificial turf.
“The first game is in LA, the second game is in Costa Rica,” Dos Santos said, “so we have to take care of the first leg in the best way possible to put us in a position to go to a very difficult place. We know the atmosphere in Costa Rica, so we're going into a difficult place, so we have to set up ourselves in the right way to succeed. ”
ABOUT ALAJUELENSE
Alajuelense plays in the Liga Promerica (also known as the Costa Rican Primera División), which is the top-tier football league in Costa Rica. Currently, Rojinegros are in sixth place in the league’s Clausura table with a record of 4W-4L-3D, with 14 goals scored and 12 conceded.
Alajuelense qualified for Concacaf Champions Cup as the 2025 Concacaf Central American Cup winners, which earned them a Round One bye in this year’s CCC.
MLSSoccer.com reports that Alajuelense’s squad “includes MLS alums like left back Ronald Matarrita, midfielder Alejandro Bran and striker Ronaldo Cisneros. Alajuelense are one of two non-MLS or LIGA MX teams left in the competition, alongside 2025 Concacaf Caribbean Cup winner Mount Pleasant (Jamaica).”
Hugo Lloris, who has conceded a single goal in 360 minutes across all competitions this year, said: “It's a Champions Cup game, you know, it doesn't matter who you are facing. You have to be at the level of the competition. It's about details as well … and putting us in a good position for the second leg. ”
LAFC WILL WIN IF
It ignores the positive headlines about its five-game unbeaten run and focuses on the 90 minutes against its Costa Rican visitors. “I don't think anybody in the locker room is thinking about the past games,” Dos Santos said, “we're thinking about this game coming up. Every game has a different story. Alajuelense is a team, last time we played them at home we didn't win [in 2023]. We lost the game. We know it's a complicated team. ”
ALAJUELENSE CAN WIN IF
It leaves Los Angeles with a draw or a one-goal deficit. Currently ranked 29th in Concacaf, Alajuelense is the highest ranked non-MLS and non-Mexican team in this competition. Not only does Alajuelense belong, they are a dangerous club that has been in this competition 29 times. Alajuelense knows that returning home with a tight aggregate score line against their northern opponents gives them a chance to stun the region, thrill their home fans, and move on to the next round.
