LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo insists he’s not viewing his side’s home tie with the Philadelphia Union as a key clash in the Supporters’ Shield race.
The two teams top their respective conferences heading into the weekend, with only Austin FC between them in the overall standings.
A win for LAFC would pull them seven points clear of the Union at this early stage. But that’s the key; it’s still far too early in the season to be drawn into overhyping one individual game, according to Cherundolo.
“This is the 10th game of a 34-game season, so I don’t want to overemphasize anything,” he said at his pre-match press conference. “I think this is just one moment of a season where both teams happen to be on top of the table. That could change in a couple of weeks, so I don’t think it would be smart of us to make a big deal out of that. But for the moment, it’s a team that is winning games and is in a good moment and is a tough team to beat and a tough team to score on. That is what we’ll deal with first.”
Cherundolo added: “I’m not sure there are any indicators right now who is a Supporters’ Shield favorite and who’s not. Ask me that question again in about four months.”
The Black and Gold’s only loss so far this season came in El Trafico against arch-rivals LA Galaxy, while the 22 points they have on the board equals their best-ever return after nine games of an MLS campaign.
Even so, Cherundolo’s measured approach to the standings filters down to his players, too, with midfielder Ilie Sanchez saying LAFC aren’t looking at the table, even if the Supporters’ Shield is on their list of targets.
“Our mentality here is to go with the highest goals, and for us right now in this competition is the Supporters’ Shield,” the Spaniard said. “I’m not saying we have in our minds to win the Supporters’ Shield [because] we don’t look at the standings yet.
“It’s the beginning of the season, the 10th game for us, and being able to get as many points as we can now, it’s going to get us closer to bigger goals at the end.”