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LAFC begins Champions Cup semifinal against Toluca without key weapon

April 29, 2026

The Los Angeles Football Club wanted a quick response after losing at home to San Jose.

Seven days later and just on time it found one.

Winning the last of three regular-season matches after a 4-1 hit against the Earthquakes and a scoreless draw with the Colorado Rapids at BMO Stadium, the week, described by LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos as the darkest of the season, turned out to be not so terrible in the end.

“The good thing about having a busy schedule is that you can get the reaction you want pretty fast,” Scottish center back Ryan Porteous said after Saturday’s 1-0 victory at Allianz Field in Saint Paul, Minn. “And I think we have done that well.”

The answer Porteous and his teammates looked for brought more than three points on the road. It kept LAFC in contact with a scorching hot San Jose and injected positivity into the group before the two-leg CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal against Liga MX standard bearer Deportivo Toluca FC begins Wednesday night.

Earning the spot with a decisive quarterfinal result against another giant of Mexico, Cruz Azul, LAFC joins Toluca, Tigres UANL and Nashville SC among the tournament’s final four.

“We need to be at the top of our game like we were for both Cruz Azul matches,” Porteous said. “We know we need to be even better than that and we’ll be ready to go.”

With the exception of a three-game stretch from April 11-19, when LAFC allowed seven of the 10 goals it has conceded through 16 matches in all competitions, Porteous and fellow center backs Nkosi Tafari, Eddie Segura (out Wednesday due to yellow-card accumulation), and recent returnee Aaron Long have been tough to beat.

At their best, LAFC center backs have defused high pressing opponents and progressed the ball with deft touches in tight spaces, waiting to connect with midfielders or find line-breaking passes.

Returning to their lockdown-defending ways, Porteous said last week the backline “went from being that confident group at the back to maybe concentrating too much on defending.” Saturday they refocused on being good on the ball, and it helped everything else. That’s useful because two-time defending Liga MX champion Toluca is more than capable of testing every facet of LAFC’s defending principles.

Toluca received a bye into the Champions Cup Round of 16 and rallied to eliminate San Diego FC before running over the Galaxy in the last round and advancing to its first semifinal since 2014.

Portuguese forward Paulinho, 33, scored five of his club’s seven goals in a quarterfinal domination of the Galaxy. He joined Diablos Rojos in 2024 following a 14-year run as a footballer in his home country, including strong stints at Braga and Sporting CP.

“Incredible signing,” said Dos Santos, who is familiar with the striker from his days in Portugal. “Very, very good in the box. Works hard. A very good player. But Toluca is a team with very good players and we’re aware of that.”

Suffice to say, Toluca and LAFC, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in CONCACAF, respectively, possess numerous weapons.

LAFC, however, will be without its most dangerous attacker for the opening 90 minutes of its third CONCACAF semifinal since 2020.

Denis Bouanga, the Black & Gold’s all-time leading goal scorer, has to sit out the match due to yellow-card accumulation. He has five tournament goals, one behind Paulinho (and eliminated Galaxy forward Gabriel Pec).

Resting in L.A. for the Minnesota match, Son Heung-min will be counted on to make things happen against Toluca.

So will David Martínez, who collected the game-winner on the weekend in Minnesota. The 20-year-old Venezuelan has been excellent so far, scoring four Champions Cup goals, including the late Round of 16 winner at Costa Rica’s Alajuelense.

“It’s going to be difficult given a player of [Bouanga’s] magnitude with the skills that he has,” Martínez said, “but for guys like myself, like Son, like [Timothy] Tillman, we all have to step up to be the best that we can.”

TOLUCA AT LAFC

What: CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal, first leg

When: Wednesday: 7:30 p.m.

Where: BMO Stadium, Los Angeles

TV/Radio: FS1, TUDN, 1230 AM

Orange County Register

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LAFC begins Champions Cup semifinal against Toluca without key weapon

TOLUCA AT LAFC

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