PASADENA — Defensive statistics aren’t the first things that come to mind when people discuss the offensively prolific Los Angeles Football Club.
Considering how many goals LAFC has scored since joining Major League Soccer in 2018, it would be unlikely to hear pundits and fans talk up “average shooting distance” from the Black & Gold opposition.
But they should.
With another strong performance on Saturday at the Rose Bowl, LAFC ran their club-record unbeaten streak in league play to 10.
Over that stretch, LAFC has stymied teams and refused to allow more than the odd chance inside the box, which is why they lead MLS with the farthest average shooting distance from opponents at 19.5 yards.
This trend continued during the 2-1 victory against the Galaxy, which dominated possession but failed to make much of their time on the ball outside of a scrambling finish in the 56th minute by Gabriel Pec directly in front of LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
“It’s a team that has been really good of late attacking quite aggressively through the middle,” LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo said of his side’s ‘El Trafico’ rival. “Keeping their wingers sometimes narrow, Pec coming on the right had too much room and that gave them a little more effectiveness, I’d say, getting in the box.
“But we take pride in not letting teams in behind our back line and not really letting teams inside our box. That’s something we work on, we talk on, and if you’re not going to get in the box you’re not going to score. If you take a deep dive into statistics defensively we’ve been fantastic the last two months.”
LAFC effectively shut down the Galaxy for the first 45 minutes. When they went to the break ahead 2-0, the five-time MLS Cup champions had engineered a measly 0.11 xG with just a pair of shots from distance that didn’t bother Lloris.
“We had a good tactical plan today in terms of when we do come sit back a little bit we still put pressure on the ball so…
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