LAFC have entered the sad song montage point of their season

Los Angeles Football Club are now five games winless. The pessimist will hone in on that fact, perhaps rightly so, while the optimist will point out that four of those non-wins have still been draws. They’re picking up points, even if not at such a rapid clip.

But regardless of what side of the divide you may fall, the truth is this is the toughest stretch of LAFC’s season so far. We’ll only know how this run fits into the black-and-gold season in hindsight, but one possibility: This is the sad-song montage of the season.

Los Angeles is known as an “industry” town, the industry being entertainment, and many genres of feature-length films feature a montage near the end which shows the main characters fighting their emotions or being sad after a pivotal fight. If you know about screenwriting (admit it, you have that can’t-miss project you’re toiling away on) you know this is the part in the story that throws up some adversity before things are happily resolved.

The British romantic comedy “Notting Hill” has an example of the sad-song montage that both spoofs and elevates the form, and is one of the most famous examples.

Anyway, this is the point of LAFC’s season, if it turns out with a happy ending, where the players stuff their hands in their proverbial pockets, hunch into the winds whipping up around them as they walk the streets, and stare out cafe windows absentmindedly while longing for that goal in mind. Only the goal isn’t that special someone, it’s soccer trophies.

LAFC need one win to clinch the Supporters’ Shield. They could do that as soon as Wednesday, when they host the Houston Dynamo at The Banc. Will that represent a climax after the sad song montage, with plaintive guitar or a lady wailing, ends and we get back to the story at hand. Stay tuned.

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