LOS ANGELES – What’s the current state of El Trafico? Carlos Vela’s courtesy might just sting the LA Galaxy’s pride more than the nastiest taunting or trash-talking.
“We have a lot of respect for Galaxy, because it's one of the oldest franchises in the league. They start with the league, so they grow with the league. So they have a lot of good things,” LAFC’s captain, talisman and inaugural signing told reporters on Wednesday as both sides of this crosstown derby prepared for its first 2023 chapter, Saturday’s season opener at the mighty Rose Bowl (9:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
“They have allowed this league to put MLS on the map," Vela added on the five-time MLS Cup champions. "All my words for them is respect, is admiration, because they are a really good franchise.”
Revenge for LA?
You may be in trouble when your fiercest rivals claim sympathy rather than enmity. Indeed, Vela and LAFC have gained the high ground in this matchup, not only claiming both the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup last season but defeating the Gs in supremely dramatic fashion at BMO Stadium on their path to the latter last autumn.
Now MLS’s most reliably bonkers matchup is decamping for Pasadena’s picturesque Arroyo Seco. A crowd at or near the Rose Bowl’s 92,542 capacity will likely set a new MLS single-game attendance record, as the Galaxy try to reassert their big-brother status despite a tumultuous offseason in Carson marked by punishments for salary-budget violations, a falling-out with supporters’ groups and simmering frustration with the way 2022 ended.
“Yeah, of course,” acknowledged Galaxy wide man – and LAFC ex – Raheem Edwards on Thursday. “LAFC’s a rival, we were knocked out by them last season in the playoffs, so it's kind of a little bit of sorts of revenge, obviously, for that game.
“It’s the first game of the season, it’s one out of 34. It's not the end-all-be-all, but it's a game obviously we want to win for our supporters, bragging rights in LA. So it's same old, same old with LAFC.”
A new stage
Almost every episode of this Los Angeles clasico has been appointment viewing since it was reborn with LAFC’s launch in 2018. And moving the show to a bigger stage – a uniquely historical one that has hosted two World Cup finals, an Olympic gold medal match, two Gold Cup finals and myriad other big games, and which recently marked its 100th birthday – promises to take it to another level.
“It's something new for us,” said LAFC co-president and GM John Thorrington. “I think the fact that the league and Apple have chosen this game at this stadium speaks to the history of the rivalry and the importance that this rivalry holds within the league, and for the sport in general, in our country right now, I think. And deservedly so. It's been an incredible narrative throughout.”
Players and coaches around MLS will readily acknowledge that opening weeks of a new season tend to be a measured ramp-up due to the marathon nature of a typical campaign, and the limits to which preseason can fully prepare them for match play. Not this time, however.
“In terms of preparation, it's an interesting one, because I think it's given the guys something to really focus,” said Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney. “The season is usually a slow roll, you kind of get yourself going slowly in the season. But with such a game right off the bat, with it being against LAFC, with it being in a stadium that's going to be full, it certainly brings a different level of focus, concentration, things like that, where the season is really going to kick off fast now. It's not a slow roll into the year.”
Opening the year with a game of this intensity, with this many eyes on it, certainly ups the ante, and both sides can be described as incomplete to some extent or another.
LAFC will open 2023 without a true No. 9 replacement for Chicho Arango, last season’s leading scorer who was sold to Liga MX side Pachuca on Feb. 1; Mahala Opoku is expected to fill that spearhead role, at least for now, but has more of a winger’s profile.
Meanwhile the Galaxy are still working on the transfer market to patch soft spots on a squad Vanney believes can contend for the Shield this year. MLSsoccer.com’s Tom Bogert reports they’ve just completed a move for Brazilian right back Lucas Calegari as a replacement for FC Barcelona-bound Julian Araujo, and on Thursday Vanney said they “probably have two to three other guys that we are in the process” of acquiring.
Show time
Any opening-day imperfections could be harshly and prominently punished on Saturday. That’s all part of this experience.
“When the concept was brought to us as a club, as an original Galaxy guy who played in the Rose Bowl, whose fan base was based over in the Rose Bowl, I was behind it 100%,” said Vanney. “I thought this would be amazing. It will show, I think, the growth of the league over the last 27 years since the league started, to go there and have maybe close to or 90,000 people at a game in the US, to have the newer club in town having a rival game. I really think it will be a spectacle in showing sort of the progress the league has made.”
A prominent Trafico protagonist from the jump, Vela has scored 10 career goals against the Galaxy and on Wednesday sounded ready for the spotlight again.
“Every derby is different, because different countries [have] different cultures about football. But the thing is, it doesn’t matter where you play, the important thing is to win. This kind of game is like, you have to win, because your fans are waiting for these types of games,” he said.
“Always it’s exciting to start the season, but more against Galaxy. I think it will be a crazy game, also playing in Rose Bowl with a lot of fans. So if the people is not excited with that, I think somebody have problems. I think everything is right there to have a good game, to enjoy the game and make the people enjoy.”
