Bradley Wright-Phillips announces he’s joined LAFC

With Los Angeles Football Club losing Adama Diomande for some time with a fractured foot, questions turned to who would be the reinforcement at center striker in the breach, and this weekend, we found out the answer.

Veteran forward Bradley Wright-Phillips, on trial with LAFC to kick off the preseason, won over Bob Bradley’s coaching staff, as the longtime New York Red Bulls player leaned all the way into his new team on social media with his own version of the cap tilt video.

BWP’s dad, former English striker Ian Wright, was also pretty hyped about the move.

Wright-Phillips battled through an injury-plagued 2019 season with the Red Bulls, but prior to that, he was one of the most consistent strikers in MLS. For five straight seasons, he scored at least 17 regular-season goals, and is one of the fastest players to 100 goals in MLS history.

Add to that the motivation to prove the Red Bulls wrong this year, which he surely has, the fact that he will probably be a rotation option over the whole course of the season but still in line to start some games, and he has a terrific personality, and BWP is the kind of veteran reinforcement LAFC could use. This is a move to be excited about.

More news for your Monday:

• No Olympics for LAFCers: In the end, South American titans Brazil and Argentina booked their tickets to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which means Colombia and Uruguay fell short at the final hurdle, after Brazil blasted Argentina in the last game, leaving the outcome of Colombia-Uruguay (which was a 3-1 win for Uruguay) moot. Eduard Atuesta and Eddie Segura both started for Colombia, but were subbed out, while Diego Rossi started and played the full 90 and Francisco Ginella came off the bench for Uruguay. All players will join LAFC’s camp this week, and none will be at the Olympics this summer, a silver lining for LAFC.
• USWNT, Canada qualify for Olympics: Meanwhile, in the women’s bracket, the U.S. Women’s National Team and Canada Women’s National Team qualified for the Olympics over the weekend, with the U.S. downing Canada in the (somewhat irrelevant) title game 3-0 Sunday in Carson.
• Diego Luna, future LAFC fan? Mexican actor Diego Luna has acted in plenty of movies that include fútbol and during a recent appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, he was introduced to LAFC, expressing surprise over the atmosphere at The Banc.

• And from there, the current leading celebrity LAFC fan (not in the ownership group), actor Colin Hanks, invited Luna to a game, who was down. Guess we’ll be seeing him on the pitch in a matter of months.

Today’s question: What do you think of BWP joining LAFC? I’m excited about it, have loved chatting with him over the years, but curious to hear others’ input. Let’s chat!