LAFC faces another challenge from Mexico in CONCACAF Champions League semifinal

To have a chance at winning the CONCACAF Champions League, the path for the Los Angeles Football Club was going to be difficult one.

Thanks to Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Cruz Azul, LAFC is now halfway home on its journey, but the road is about to get a bit more challenging.

LAFC will take on Mexico’s Club America in the single-elimination semifinal Saturday night (7:30 p.m., FS2) at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida. Club America has won 13 Liga MX championships.

“I said the other day, how excited and motivated we were to return to Champions League, we were very pleased with the result against Cruz Azul,” Bradley said. “Now, we look forward to a huge game with Club America. The group is in a really good frame of mind.”

LAFC is the last remaining MLS club in the tournament. Club America lost its second quarterfinal game 1-0 to Atlanta United, but advanced 3-1 on aggregate.

If LAFC is to pull off the upset, it will need another strong performance from Carlos Vela, who converted a penalty kick in Wednesday’s win over Cruz Azul and, according to Bradley, Vela is “getting closer.”

That’s getting closer to the MLS MVP form of 2019 when Vela scored 34 goals and added 15 assists, leading LAFC to the Supporter’s Shield.

Vela has had a challenging 2020. He led the team to the Round of 16 series win over Club Leon and into the start of the MLS regular season. He didn’t travel with the team to Florida for the MLS is Back Tournament and in the first game of the regular-season restart, he suffered a MCL injury.

“First game back was Galaxy (Aug. 22) and he did his MCL and he was out for 10 or 11 weeks, so at one point when we were looking at things and talking about his return to play, he had played 55 minutes in like seven months,” Bradley said. “Great players still need to train and play and train and play. This is how you get the rhythm.”

Bradley added that Vela’s motivation has certainly been a huge boost for the club. The former member of the Mexican national team is playing his first games against teams from Mexico.

“I think he has set a fantastic tone for everybody,” Bradley said of Vela. “He’s our leader. He brings us so much in experience and personality and I know for sure when we play the big Mexican teams, he has extra motivation.

“It’s all about motivating and pushing everybody to be ready and play our football.”

The winner between LAFC and Club America will take on the winner from the 5 p.m. semifinal between Tigres and Olimpia (Honduras).

“We’ve set the bar high at LAFC,” Bradley said. “We’re a young club, we haven’t done enough yet, but to really make a history and to make your fans proud, you’ve got to get into these kind of events and you’ve got to take them seriously and most of all, you have to step on the field and go for it.”