5 takeaways from LAFC’s 5-1 loss at Minnesota United

There was really nothing pretty about Sunday’s 5-1 loss at Minnesota United for Los Angeles Football Club.

Nothing at all.

With that, here are our five takeaways from the road loss:

Defense, defense, defense

LAFC’s defense was abysmal. It was almost as if they weren’t even there.

First, the lineup contained changes that really were head-scratching. Combining Tristan Blackmon with Joao Moutinho on the backline proved to be disastrous. Dejan Jakovic was virtually an empty shirt and Laurent Ciman nearly scored an own goal which is unheard of.

I’m not sure what the deal was but it seemed the defense was never really in the game and Minnesota took full advantage.

More missed opportunities.

The Black-and-Gold had an attack plan that never really materialized. The front line never amassed much in the way of a threat.

Marco Ureña was left on an island by himself and received little to no support up front.

Players were given opportunities to prove themselves and, for all intents and purposes, they failed … badly.

Turnovers

This was the real killer for LAFC Sunday night.

Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

While attempting to collapse on Minnesota with numbers, LAFC failed to account for what would happen if they turned the ball over with that strategy.

The end result, players like Darwin Quintero and Christian Ramirez were able to find a lot of space running up front. LAFC failed in their attempts to counter this error after the break and it resulted in a complete letdown from the middle to the back.

Failure to force the wings

Minnesota was content to play predominantly in the middle and the Black-and-Gold let them.

LAFC never got their wing game in the mix and let the Loons dictate the tempo in the middle. It resulted in too much crowding in the middle which led to turnovers by LAFC and space for Minnesota’s counter-attack.

Road woes

Yes, Minnesota had a good run at home, but LAFC completely failed to account for the fact they were on the road.

For the first 15 minutes, LAFC played like it was a home game for them and seemed to take the crowd out of the game, but that was it. After that, it was all Minnesota, all the time.

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