Days after his team’s Concacaf Champions League match was postponed and the MLS season came screeching to a halt as a result of COVID-19, Bob Bradley spoke to the media. In various interviews throughout the week, the LAFC head coach set the tone as California and states across the U.S. went into lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
"Obviously, we’re so fortunate at LAFC. Our culture, where every day as players arrive at the Performance Center, there's camaraderie, there's enthusiasm, there's the passion for what we’re all doing and the love that everybody has to get on the field and train and push ourselves,” Bradley told LAFC.com. “And when you’re not at a period where you have that ability to be there, reinforcing that we’re all together, even when we’re not physically in the same place, this is so important."
The advice was universal: Alone together. Bradley was addressing his team in that moment, but he’d go a step further to include the entire Club and LAFC community.
"Really, it’s also something that we say to all our fans. The connection that LAFC has with the fans and the city is so unique and so special. It comes to life when there are games and the stadium is alive with the passion and the diversity and spirit of people throughout Los Angeles," Bradley said. "But now what we need to do is help each other. We need to make sure that collectively we’re all doing the right things, knowing that this is what’s needed to get a return to the part that we all love."
In the middle of lockdown in Northern California, two young brothers took the spirit of that message to heart. And they got creative with it.
Twin brothers Kourosh and Dariush, 9, play competitively for Ballistic United in the Bay Area and love football. And they love the Black & Gold. When the family decided to mix up their lockdown routine a bit by having the kids cook for the grownups, they brought those passions together with a popup LAFC Diner.
“It’s just heartwarming,” the boys' mother Miriam said. “When I get down sometimes with this whole COVID everything, I just think about that night and I just start smiling.”
Kourosh and Dariush planned the entire night from start to finish. No detail was spared.
After being asked by the boys to leave the house on a short walk, Miriam and her husband returned to a four-star experience.
“First of all, they both had their LAFC jerseys on,” Miriam said. “They had gone and put them on. The other thing was they had a notebook with a pen ready to take notes of everything we asked for during our dinner.”
The boys welcomed their parents at the front door upon their return to the house and led them to an exclusive table in the dining room. Kourosh and Dariush handed their parents the night’s printed menu. “LAFC Diner” was proudly displayed across the top. Next to food items like Caesar salad and Caprese were images of LAFC players. Of course, the color scheme was black and gold.
The boys worked as a team. Dariush handled chef duties. Kourosh worked the front of house as host and server. He completed the fine-dining experience by bowing after taking each order, before running off to the kitchen to relay it to his brother.
In between taking orders and bringing out food, the boys kept the LAFC theme going. They’d steal away for short periods of time to watch the replay of the LAFC-Philadelphia match in March - oddly enough the last MLS match played in 2020. But never let too much time go by between asking how the food was and checking on their special guests.
“I could see by the looks on their faces when they would return from the other room that they’d just seen something amazing,” Miriam said of the boys watching snippets of the match in between serving duties.
As for the food that night? Excellent. Miriam recalled her and her husband ordering the Caprese four times. But she’ll cherish so much more from the night than just the dinner.
“That night, I don’t know how to describe it. I felt like I was flying. For two kids, being in lockdown, not being able to go play the game they love, their passion, no outside activities, not being able to play with their friends or go to school, and yet, to find a way to bring happiness, laughter, and smiles to their family, I thought that was incredible on their part,” Miriam said. “Because it was not only that night. That continued on when I shared the story with friends and colleagues. I put it on our company Slack and got many smiley replies with: ‘Wow! What a great story.’ It just rippled. I love that we could put a smile on other people’s faces during the lockdown.
“The lessons and values in life that I want the boys to learn as they grow up are family values. As parents, we want to instill those values in our kids. Instill in them that simple things matter the most. Simple things that bring a smile to someone’s day go a long way.”
