Jeremy Ebobisse scores in his LAFC debut in season-opening win over Minnesota

Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times on Feb 22, 2025

Published in Soccer

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LOS ANGELES — LAFC headed into its eighth MLS season Saturday with more questions than answers, few of which were solved in its 1-0 victory over Minnesota United in front of a crowd of 22,310 at BMO Stadium.

The game's only goal came from newcomer Jeremy Ebobisse in the 78th minute. On the other end, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was called on to make just two saves in recording his 13th shutout since entering MLS last season.

And while that left LAFC a league-record 8-0-0 in home openers, it did little to erase doubts over whether the team is good enough to return to the MLS Cup final for a third time in four seasons.

Another busy offseason saw general manager John Thorrington part ways with 15 players, including three of the team's four leading scorers and two of its top three midfielders. As a result, four of the 11 players who started Saturday weren't even with the team at this point last season.

Those new players will have to step up to replace what the team lost — in particular the 16 goals and eight assists Mateusz Bogusz contributed before leaving for Mexico's Cruz Azul last month on a reported $9 million transfer — if LAFC is to build on the success that has seen it win more games, score more goals and earn more points that any MLS team since it entered the league in 2018.

"When you are selling players because they've generated interest, it means they've done really well for you," Thorrington said. "Yes, it's harder. But we don't shy away from that. And now our job is to find the next guy that our supporters will cheer for and will represent LAFC."

What hasn't changed is the way LAFC plays, often preferring to play defense and attack in transition (although the Black and Gold had the ball for nearly an hour of the 90 minutes against a cautious Minnesota United on Saturday). And that's made the rebuilding job more challenging.

"There are some really good players out there in our league and elsewhere that just don't fit how we play," Thorrington said. "To build a sustainably successful team, you need to have a real sense of identity as to what type of people you want in this building and how the team comes together to fit a game model."

That model worked last year when LAFC (19-8-7) finished atop the Western Conference standings and won the U.S. Open Cup. But it failed in the playoffs, with LAFC going out in the conference semifinals, its earliest exit in three years.

On Saturday, LAFC's rebuilt midfield struggled to slow Minnesota's speedy attackers in the early going but was bailed out when Kelvin Yeboah's left-footed shot struck the right post and caromed across the goalmouth in the 13th minute. A minute later an attempted clearance struck Yeboah in the box and ricocheted toward the goal, forcing Lloris to pluck it out of the air.

After a scoreless 70 minutes in which the teams combined to put just four of 21 shots on goal, the game swung decidedly in LAFC's favor when Nathan Ordaz entered for David Martínez. Ordaz, 21, a product of the LAFC academy, immediately opened up the Minnesota midfield, drawing a yellow card and setting up a corner kick in his first five minutes. His straight-line speed also helped create the space Ebobisse exploited for his goal.

A wide-open Ebobisse, signed as a free agent in December, beat Minnesota keeper Dayne St. Clair with a left-footed shot from the top the box after Denis Bouanga and Ordaz worked the ball around the penalty area. But it was Mark Delgado, another new acquisition, who made the play possible by freeing Bouanga up the left side with a through ball.

If LAFC remains a work in progress in some areas, it has managed to weather the weather, opening its non-league schedule with a 2-1 loss to Colorado in the first game of a two-leg CONCACAF Champions Cup playoff that will conclude Tuesday at BMO Stadium. That game, in suburban Denver, kicked off in snowy 1-degree temperatures, making it the coldest-ever game between MLS teams.

It was a comfortable 74 degrees at the start of Saturday's regular-season opener.