Wednesday, April 29 | 7:30 p.m. PT
🏟 | BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA
🖥 | FS1, TUDN, ConcacafGO, Coupang Play (Korea)
📻 | 710 AM ESPN, ESPN LA App, KFWB 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish), & KYPA 1230 AM (Korean)
LAFC’s most important match of the year thus far takes place Wednesday night at BMO Stadium, as the Black & Gold hosts Deportivo Toluca F.C. of Liga MX in the first leg of their two-game, home-and-away matchup in the Concacaf Champions Cup Semifinals.
The second leg will be played next Wednesday, May 6, at Estadio Nemesio Díez in Toluca, Mexico, with the winner on aggregate (combined) goals advancing to the Concacaf Champions Cup Final on May 30.
The series features the top two teams in the new Concacaf rankings, which have Toluca ranked #1 and LAFC ranked #2. The winner of this two-leg semifinal will face the winner of the semifinal between third-ranked Nashville SC (MLS) and fourth-ranked Tigres UANL (Liga MX).
Toluca is the two-time defending champions of Liga MX, having won the Clausura and Apertura titles in 2025. LAFC is the only MLS club to reach three Concacaf Champions Cup Semifinals since 2018, the Black & Gold’s inaugural season.
LAFC advanced to the Champions Cup Final in its only two previous Semifinal appearances, before falling to trophy winners Tigres in 2020 and Club León in 2023.
WHAT IS CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP?
The region’s most prestigious club competition, 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 Champions Cup Final on May 30 earns a berth in the FIFA Club World Cup in 2029.
ROAD TO THE SEMIFINALS
LAFC earned its place in this semifinal by defeating Honduran club Real España in Round One (7-1 aggregate), Costa Rican power Alajuelense in the Round of 16 (3-2 agg.), and defending Concacaf champions Cruz Azul in the Quarterfinals (4-1 agg.).
Three Black & Gold players were named to the CCC Quarterfinals Best XI squad for their role in defeating Cruz Azul: forward David Martínez (two goals), midfielder Mathieu Choinière (two assists), and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris (zero non-penalty goals conceded).
Lloris made eight saves against Cruz Azul in Leg 2, the most he has recorded in more than 100 appearances for LAFC across all competitions.
LAFC has scored 14 goals in this year’s competition, more than any of the other three semifinalists. Son Heung-Min has recorded five assists – tied for first among all players in the competition. Martínez has scored four goals – tied for fourth in 2026 CCC.
LAFC will play Wednesday night’s first leg without its all-time leading goal scorer Denis Bouanga, who is serving a one-match suspension due to yellow-card accumulation. Bouanga, this competition’s leading scorer over the last four years (2023-2026), has scored five Champions Cup goals this year, one fewer than Paulinho of Toluca, who is tied with the Galaxy’s Gabriel Pec atop the individual goals chart (six goals each).
Defender Eddie Segura, the longest-tenured member of the Black & Gold, will also sit out Wednesday’s match due to yellow-card suspension.
In LAFC’s six Champions Cup matches this year, the Black & Gold has a record of 4W-0L-2D with a goal differential of +10 (14 goals scored, four conceded). LAFC has not conceded more than one goal in a Champions Cup match, and has posted two clean sheets.
SCOUTING TOLUCA
Led by captain and star forward Alexis Vega and coached by Argentine manager Antonio Mohamed, Toluca, as reigning Liga MX champions, earned a bye in Round One of Concacaf Champions Cup. The Red Devils then advanced past San Diego FC (6-3 agg.) in the Round of 16, and the Galaxy (7-2 agg.) in the Quarterfinals.
Toluca is currently in fourth place in the Liga MX Clausura table (8W-3L-6D), tied on points with Cruz Azul, whom LAFC eliminated in the CCC Quarterfinals.
In its most recent match over the weekend, Toluca defeated 10th-place León 4-1 on Saturday April 25, with 10 men. Prior to that victory, Toluca had been winless in its previous six league matches (0W-3L-3D), including losses to Club América, 2-1 (April 18) and Mazatlán, 4-3 (April 23).
Portuguese forward Paulinho leads all players in this year’s Champions Cup with six goals scored. The 33-year-old has scored 18 goals in the 2025-26 Liga MX Apertura and Clausura season (third-most in Liga MX). Attackers Jesús Angulo and Helinho have scored seven goals each in league play.
SIMILAR STYLES
LAFC and Toluca both typically employ a 4-3-3 shape that features high pressing, counter-pressing, and quick transitions from defense to attack, which can often place their sturdy back lines under pressure.
Each team relies on a deep bench for second-half adjustments that can change the tempo of a match or finish it off.
HUGOS IN GOAL
This semifinal features two veteran goalkeepers named Hugo. Hugo Lloris of LAFC (above) is having one of the finest seasons of his 20-year professional career, with eight clean sheets in nine starts in MLS play (most in the league) and just three goals conceded in the run of play in five Concacaf appearances. The former France captain started the last two FIFA World Cup Finals, in 2018 and 2022, leading his country to the sport’s top prize in 2018.
Thirty-five-year-old Hugo González has been arguably the best goalie in Liga MX during the current Clausura season, igniting discussion that he might join Mexico’s roster for this summer’s FIFA World Cup. Toluca’s first-choice keeper in Concacaf play, however, has been Luis Manuel Garcia, who has started three of four matches in this competition and registered clean sheets against San Diego and the Galaxy in the second leg of those two matchups.
GET TO KNOW TOLUCA
Founded in 1917 and nicknamed Los Diablos Rojos (The Red Devils), Deportivo Toluca F.C. is one of seven Mexican clubs to have never been relegated from Mexico’s top tier.
Located in the city of Toluca (metro population 2.3 million), Toluca F.C. has made 14 appearances in Concacaf Champions Cup (its first coming in 1968) and has won the competition twice, in its debut in 1968 as well as in 2003.
The Red Devils have claimed twelve Liga MX titles in its history, including the last two.
LAFC VS. LIGA MX
LAFC has an all-time record of 8W-5L-4D in 17 matches against Liga MX clubs in official competition (Leagues Cup, Concacaf Champions Cup, Campeones Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup Play-In match).
The Black & Gold is unbeaten in regulation time against Liga MX clubs over its last eight meetings (4W-0L-4D). Three of those four draws went to penalty kicks, with LAFC winning one of the three shootouts.
2/18/20 |
L 0-2 León – CCC Rd of 16 (in León) |
2/27/20 |
W 3-0 León – CCC Rd of 16 (in LA) |
12/16/20 |
W 2-1 Cruz Azul – CCC QF (in Orlando FL) |
12/19/20 |
W 3-1 América – CCC Semi (in Orlando) |
12/22/20 |
L 2-1 Tigres – CCC Final (in Orlando) |
5/31/23 |
L 2-1 León – CCC Final (in León) |
6/4/23 |
L 0-1 León – CCC Final (BMO Stadium) |
8/2/23 |
W 7-1 Juarez – Leagues Cup (BMO Stadium) |
8/11/23 |
L 2-3 Monterrey - Leagues Cup QF (Rose Bowl) |
9/27/23 |
D 0-0 Tigres - Campeones Cup (lost in PKs) (BMO Stadium) |
7/6/24 |
W 3-0 Tijuana - Leagues Cup (BMO Stadium) |
5/31/25 |
W 2-1 América – Club World Cup Play-In (BMO Stadium) |
7/29/25 |
D 1-1 Mazatlán – Leagues Cup (lost in PKs) (BMO Stadium) |
8/1/25 |
D 1-1 Pachuca - Leagues Cup (won in PKs) (BMO Stadium) |
8/5/25 |
W 2-1 Tigres - Leagues Cup (BMO Stadium) |
4/7/26 |
W 3-0 Cruz Azul – CCC QF (BMO Stadium) |
4/14/26 |
D 1-1 Cruz Azul – CCC QF (in Puebla, Mex.) |
In Champions Cup history, MLS teams and Liga MX teams have met 18 times in the Semifinals. Liga MX sides have advanced to the Final on 14 occasions, with MLS teams advancing four times.
LAFC CAN WIN IF
The new face in its attack makes an impact. Without Bouanga in his usual spot on the left wing of LAFC’s 4-3-3 (due to one-game suspension), the Black & Gold will insert a fresh piece into its starting eleven.
Son (above), the former English Premier League star, could shift to the left, where he scored more than 100 goals for Tottenham over the last decade, or he could remain in a central role and leave Bouanga’s spot to the speedy Jacob Shaffelburg, steady Tyler Boyd, or disruptive Nathan Ordaz. Whoever fills in will have the opportunity to connect with the assist leader in both MLS and Concacaf this year (Son) and give the Black & Gold a much-needed result headed into Leg Two in Mexico, where Bouanga, the competition’s most dangerous attacker over the last four years, will likely return.
TOLUCA CAN WIN IF
The form it showed against León holds true. The Red Devils had been in a rut before dominating Los Esmeraldas at home on Saturday night, 4-1, with just 10 men. Coming off a six-game winless streak in league play, Toluca received a long-range golazo from attacking midfielder Sebastián Córdova to open the scoring against León, and held a 2 -1 lead in the 66th minute when defender Antonio Briseño was sent off with his second yellow card.
But the Red Devils gained strength instead of losing it, adding two more goals despite playing down a man, and creating much-needed momentum before their flight to Los Angeles, where LAFC’s 3252 Supporters’ Union has become known for making visitors uncomfortable.
This is Toluca’s first trip to a Concacaf Semifinal since 2014. They’d like nothing more than to repeat their most recent trip to southern California, when they shut out the Galaxy 3-0 on April 15 in the second leg of that Quarterfinal.
