Wednesday, August 12 | 7:30 p.m. PT
🏟 | BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA
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With potential advancement to the Leagues Cup Quarterfinals on the line, LAFC hosts Liga MX club Querétaro F.C. on Saturday night at BMO Stadium, in both clubs’ third and final match in the tournament’s opening phase.
LAFC holds five points through two matches based on its penalty-shootout win over Chivas (two points) and regulation-time victory over Toluca (three points). But six teams stand above the Black & Gold in the MLS table, so the Black & Gold needs a win over Querétaro - combined with other results across Leagues Cup this week - to move into the knockout rounds, which begin on August 25.
Goal differential - the top tiebreaker - could also play a role in who advances, but LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos is more focused on Saturday’s outcome. “The most important thing is to win the game,” Dos Santos told the media on Tuesday. “If you ask me if I want to win 1-0 or 5-0, you know my answer. But the first focus is that we finish Wednesday with eight points and then we see what happens with the other games.”
Leagues Cup - the annual 36-team, MLS-vs.-Liga MX competition that pits North America’s top two leagues against one another - offers three slots in next year’s Concacaf Champions Cup, the most prestigious club tournament in the region. The Leagues Cup champion, runner-up, and third-place finisher will advance to the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup.
TOLUCA TRIUMPH
LAFC’s hopes of moving on to the Quarterfinals looked dim in the 90th minute of last Saturday’s home match against powerful Toluca. But that was before second-half substitute Eddie Segura (above) collected a second ball atop Toluca’s penalty area and whipped it with his right foot into the visitors' net to rescue three points and resurrect LAFC’s trophy aspirations.
FROM DISTANCE
Segura's golazo was was yet another long-distance strike from the club that leads MLS in goals scored from outside the box in league play.
“Yeah, you've seen a number of them, right?” Dos Santos said. “If I go back all the way back to our win in Houston where Steph [Eustáquio] and Marky [Delgado] scored outside the box, or our win against St. Louis - two goals from Matt [Choiniere] outside the box - you have to have different weapons. If an opponent is defending low, maybe you get around them looking for the by-line, looking for shots outside the box. If the opponent gives you the space in behind them, you have to know how to attack them. So [these are] all weapons that are important to use.”
ABOUT QUERÉTARO
Based in the central Mexico city of Santiago de Querétaro – the capital and largest city in the state of Querétaro – Querétaro F.C. was founded in 1950 and is known amongst its supporters as Los Gallos Blancos (White Roosters) de Querétaro.
The club has never won a league title, but it has gotten off to a strong start in this year’s Apertura regular season with a 2W-1L-0D record and key wins over Tigres (3-2) and Pachuca (2-1), and a narrow home loss to Club América (0-1).
So far in Leagues Cup, however, Querétaro has failed to earn a point or score a goal, dropping a 2-0 result to Dallas, and losing 3-0 to Seattle. Querétaro has been eliminated from advancement to the Quarterfinals.
Los Angeles native, LAFC Academy product, and 2022 MLS Cup Champion Erik Dueñas started for Querétaro against Seattle last weekend in the midfield. Dueñas made his LAFC debut in 2020 at 15 years and 362 days old, making him one of the youngest players to ever appear in an MLS match.
Other prominent Querétaro players include 33-year-old defender Diego Reyes, who has earned more than 60 caps with the Mexican National Team, and 22-year-old Uruguayan midfielder Santiago Homenchenko. Teenage playmaker Juan Martinez has made a name for himself as a player to watch for Mexico as it builds toward the World Cup in 2030.
Forward Ali Ávila Vega leads Querétaro in goals scored in Liga MX play, with three.
LAFC WILL WIN IF
It keeps its eyes on the prize. A week ago, Dos Santos suggested that the results of the first two Leagues Cup matches would determine how hard LAFC pursues a result in the third. Now they’re here, five points in hand and one win away from a Quarterfinal berth (if a few other matches fall LAFC’s way).
Querétaro struggled in its first two Leagues Cup matches, far from home in Dallas and Seattle. But LAFC must disregard its opponent’s recent form. Asked if he thought Saturday's match would be easy, forward David Martínez answered: “No, I think it’s going to be a good match. We don't look at it as easy or difficult. We respect every team. We know they’re a capable team, so we have to stay united and focused to pull off the win and keep going in the tournament.”
QUERÉTARO CAN WIN IF
It scores first and goalkeeper Guillermo Allison stands on his head. The 35-year-old former Cruz Azul man is capable of a gamechanging performance between the posts, and Querétaro manager Esteban González would certainly prefer to grab a 1-0 lead, but pulling off one of those two outcomes at BMO Stadium is a tall order to say the least. As stated here previously, the numbers show that LAFC owns the best home-field advantage in MLS since it entered the league in 2018, partially because its attackers hunt each game’s first goal like predators.
