A unified LAFC faces a tough showdown in Portland

If circumstances surrounding the Los Angeles Football Club’s travel to Portland connected Sunday consciousness familiar, that’s due to the fact that they are.

Heading into the team’s erstwhile sojourn to the Pacific Northwest connected July 21, the vexation that acceptable successful with middling results implicit the archetypal two-and-a-half months of the play seemed down them aft LAFC had won 3 successful a enactment and were situated successful a Western Conference playoff spot.

Then, erstwhile Portland guardant Felipe Mora headed successful an improbable crippled victor successful the 93rd minute, 1 of the worst defeats of the play knocked LAFC backmost connected its heels.

The effect was the archetypal of 8 consecutive winless contests for LAFC, including 4 consecutive defeats that sent the nine tumbling toward the bottommost of the Western Conference array portion cardinal injuries to Eddie Segura and Carlos Vela, and the ever-present transportation speech regarding Diego Rossi, hung implicit the locker room.

“That acceptable america disconnected connected a agelong wherever we weren’t arsenic consistent,” LAFC caput manager Bob Bradley said Saturday. “We mislaid a spot of confidence. You cognize erstwhile you’re going done a play and astatine times you don’t person accordant lineups, if you suffer a constituent connected a fixed day, if each of a abrupt you play good and marque a mistake and a crippled slips away, that tin devour distant astatine confidence.”

For the Black & Gold, mediocre results didn’t cease until a astonishing 4-0 triumph against Sporting Kansas City connected Sept. 3. Beating Real Salt Lake past play and Austin FC connected Wednesday enactment LAFC connected its 2nd three-match winning streak of the season, and pushed Bradley’s broadside backmost into a postseason spot, 1 constituent down Portland.

“I deliberation we had countless meetings arsenic a team, coaching unit and players included, successful bid for america to person conversations astir wherever we request to beryllium mentally and having the benignant of cognition wherever we request to travel unneurotic arsenic a team,” South Korean defender Kim Moon-Hwan said. “Of course, winning helps. That changes the ambiance and cognition of the players successful the grooming grounds and the benignant of conversations that we have.

“But fixed the results we’ve had and however we’ve prepared to get retired of the streak of atrocious results, we’ve travel unneurotic to rally down and enactment ourselves successful a presumption mentally unneurotic wherever we assistance each different and promote each different to bash our best. Right now, I decidedly consciousness similar our unit and players are committed to turning this astir and getting the champion results we can.”

With LAFC having earned 10 points successful its past 4 matches, and with 30 points near to vie for successful the regular play including Sunday, Moon’s Ecuadorian teammate, midfielder Jose Cifuentes, said LAFC “is overmuch much agreed than we were before.”

LAFC (9-9-6, 33 points) volition person to unrecorded up to those words astatine Providence Park against an in-form Timbers broadside that besides has 3 wins and a gully successful its past 4 contests. On Wednesday, Portland (10-10-4, 34 points) rallied with a antheral down to salvage a constituent astatine location against a pugnacious Colorado team.

“You tin spot the radical arsenic a full moving on successful a bully way,” Bradley said. “It’s ever a pugnacious crippled successful Portland, a squad that is connected a bully run, truthful to that extremity to triumph successful Portland everyone has to beryllium acceptable for a hard game.”

LAFC vs. PORTLAND

When: 4:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Providence Park, Portland, Oregon

TV: FS1, FOX Deportes (Spanish)

Radio: 710 AM, ESPN App, 980 AM (Spanish)