Lafc Vs L.d. Alajuelense brings LAFC back into Concacaf’s sharper spotlight
BMO Stadium opens its doors again with a familiar opponent on the other side. In lafc vs l. d. alajuelense, LAFC returns to the Concacaf Champions Cup in a Round of 16 first leg that lands in the middle of the club’s best start in its history. The match also arrives with a specific individual focus: Son Heung-min in the starting lineup, tasked with pushing his season total beyond a single penalty goal.
BMO Stadium and Son Heung-min at 11: 00 pm ET
The starting lineup, released ahead of LAFC’s home match, places Son Heung-min as the center striker in a 4-3-3 formation. Denis Bouanga and Timothy Tillman sit on the wings beside him, shaping the front line for a night that is part of a two-game, home-and-away series. The kickoff time is tied to the announcement from Korea: the match is set for 12 p. m. on the 11th Korea time, which is 11: 00 pm ET on March 10.
Behind the front three, LAFC lists Marco Delgado, Amin Budri, and Mathieu Shuaniere in midfield. The back line includes Ryan Hollingshead, Nkosi Tapari, Ryan Porteous, and Serhiy Palencia, with Hugo Lloris in goal. For Son, the selection marks a third straight start, and it comes with a narrow statistical edge: one goal and five assists in five games under new coach Mark dos Santos, with the lone goal coming from the penalty spot. The same stretch has also included two opposing red cards that dos Santos credited to Son’s influence.
That personal chase sits alongside a larger club rhythm. LAFC enters the night coming off a 1-0 win over FC Dallas in MLS regular-season play, a result driven by David Martinez’s 55th-minute goal. The victory extended a franchise-record run: five straight wins to open a season, including three in MLS play.
LAFC, Mark dos Santos, and the shift back to Concacaf Champions Cup
The game forces a quick turn from domestic momentum to a tournament described inside the club as cutthroat: Concacaf Champions Cup, contested by 27 clubs across North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The final is set for May 30, 2026, and LAFC’s task begins with the Round of 16 and a two-leg matchup that will be decided on aggregate goals.
Dos Santos framed the assignment in practical terms, starting at home. The first leg is in Los Angeles; the second leg will be in Costa Rica. “We have to take care of the first leg in the best way possible to put us in a position to go to a very difficult place, ” he said, pointing directly to the atmosphere waiting at Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto. The stadium is noted for its 19, 000 capacity and artificial turf, and LAFC will head there next week for the return match.
Son’s place in this pivot is shaped by both form and management. Dos Santos previously limited him to 45 minutes in the first half of the second match in the first round, describing the need to build rhythm because Son did not fully spend the pre-season. Now, with a starting role again, the attention tightens around a simple measurement: whether his next goal comes from open play, after four straight games without a field goal.
L. D. Alajuelense, Timmy Tillman, and memories from 2023
The opponent arrives with its own history and labels: L. D. Alajuelense, known as Los Leones and also as Red-and-Blacks, is described as one of Central America’s most successful clubs. In Costa Rica’s top tier, Liga Promerica, Alajuelense currently sits sixth in the Clausura table at 4W-4L-3D, with 14 goals scored and 12 conceded. The club earned a Round One bye in this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup after winning the 2025 Concacaf Central American Cup.
For LAFC, this pairing carries a recent memory with clear numbers attached. The clubs last met in Concacaf Champions Cup play in 2023, when LAFC advanced 4-2 on aggregate. That series opened with a 3-0 win for LAFC in Costa Rica, powered by Denis Bouanga’s first career hat trick for the Black & Gold. A week later in Los Angeles, Alajuelense won 2-1, but LAFC’s aggregate advantage held.
Those details aren’t nostalgia for the sake of it; they shape the present tension in lafc vs l. d. alajuelense. The first leg at home carries extra weight because the second leg sits at a venue LAFC calls “a very difficult place. ” If LAFC advances, the reward is a quarterfinal matchup against the winner of another Round of 16 series: Cruz Azul vs Monterrey.
Midfielder Timmy Tillman, who played in both 2023 matches against Alajuelense, described the internal discipline LAFC wants to keep. “It would be a great story to win Concacaf for the first time, ” he said, before pulling the focus back to sequence: “step by step, ” and no thinking about the final while the Round of 16 still sits unresolved.
Inside BMO Stadium, the opening scene is still the same concrete fact: a home crowd, an opponent with a track record, and a lineup built around a center striker still looking for his second goal of the season. Next week the setting flips to Costa Rica, where Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto—and the aggregate score—will decide whether this story keeps moving.
