Must have been quite a trip for Son and Lloris. A year ago Lloris was playing in sub-freezing temps in Colorado.
Took a few minutes to go through the Defence Force lineup. They have an all-domestic roster. Six players in their starting lineup have played abroad at some level. These include former MLS players Kevin Molino and Joevin Jones, as well as Sheldon Bateau who has played most of his career in Belgium; all three of those former high-level players are now 34-35 and presumably finishing their careers at home. The other three who have gone abroad are left back Triston Hodge who played several years in the USL Championship, center forward Kathon St. Hillaire who was in Czech and Polish lower divisions for five years, and defensive midfielder Joshua Araujo-Wilson who played college ball at Jacksonville.
0-5, Damiani on a PK. LAFC's record for away margin of victory may well stand for less than 24 hours.
So far, if there's one big difference between this season and past seasons' early rounds, it's that the MLS teams have been much more ruthless with their chances in 2026.
About ********ing time. And when I think of ruthless, I think of Tom Barlow, who has scored to put Cincinnati up 1-0 in the Dominican Republic.
Full time. Third away comb in a row, though two of them were against completely outclassed Caribbean opposition.
Funny enough, I came here at halftime of the Vancouver-Cartaginés game to say that the TUDN announcers spent much of the first 20 minutes absolutely GUSHING about how good the MLS teams have been this year, how the technique has improved, blah, blah, blah. You'd think that MLS pays their checks.
So Vancouver is the only team so far with work to do, but they now have home advantage, so any win will do. Stadiums in Costa Rica seem to have improved. I will never forget that one year that Houston played in CRC. A player fell into the grass and disappeared because it was THAT tall.