LAFC: The secret weapon that is yet to be unleashed

LAFC sit at 3-2 and in a nice position to begin pushing for a postseason berth. They also have a secret weapon that is yet to be unleashed: Their new home, Banc of California Stadium.

Football, or soccer, as the American half of our audience would have it — I am, for my sins, English, and therefore struggle to acclimatise the Stateside lexicon every now and then –, is a tribal and atmospheric game. Unlike few other sports in the world, the feeling and ferver of the crowd can have a very real impact on the game. The home advantage, as it is know, exists.

That is not to say that every team will benefit from it. There are cases in every league that suggest the opposite, clubs performing better away from home than at home. But throughout the history of the sport, there is an unquestioned slighting to the home side.

Playing away from home is not easy. First and foremost, the majority of the fans in the stadium want you to lose. The atmosphere can often be hostile, high-pressured, even violent at times if Liverpool’s welcome of Manchester City in this year’s Champions League final is anything to go by. That affects the mental state of players. Many may say otherwise, but it does. There is no way that 50,000 people screaming against you does not have an impact, at least to a small extent.

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But there are other factors. Everton midfield Leon Osman, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, stated that he knew every blade of grass at Goodison Park, the Toffees home stadium. There is an affinity and acclimatisation to your home stadium that is not the same at any away stadia. There is the travel. Fancy flying from Seattle to Orlando every week? No, me neither. There is the time-zone changes, the altering to the weekly schedule of the club, the messing of the individual routines that every player will have prior to a home game.

It is this context of quite primal instincts that LAFC have opened their MLS season. The latest addition to MLS currently sit at a rather healthy 3-2. It would be even healthier had they had the courage and resilience to not concede nine goals without reply between successive losses to LA Galaxy and Atlanta United. Nevertheless, it has been a wonderful start to their first season as a professional club.

And as they steady themselves for a postseason push, something that is always a little ambitious and near-naive for an expansion side, they have a secret weapon to unleash. You see, LAFC are yet to play one home game. Banc of California Stadium was not opened officially until this week. It will not actually host a game until April 29th, when the opening-day loser Seattle Sounders will come to LA looking for revenge.

By that time, LAFC will have played six games, all of which have been on the road. Their next game is another away tie, travelling to the Montreal Impact. They will, of course, be hoping to continue their righting the wrongs from last weekend, a conclusive and fairly normal 2-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps, a win that was perhaps the most impressive of the season precisely because it seemed routine. If they continue winning games like that, then this team will be going places, that is for sure.

And now they have a run of concentrated home fixtures between now and the end of the MLS campaign. If they can, as the cliche goes, make Banc of California Stadium a fortress, then they will go a long way to confirming their place as one of the playoff competitors come the end of the year. Obviously, this is a new team without the natural following of many of the other MLS franchises. There is a lot of work to do to inspire a raucous atmosphere. But I’m sure that LAFC would rather play at a potentially quiet home stadium than traversing across the country every weekend.

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It is the secret weapon that no one is really talking about. But it has the potential to change the landscape of this season for the league’s newcomers. It’s time for LAFC to unleash the home advantage.

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