Surging Cincinnati wary of visiting LAFC's depth

FC Cincinnati will look to extend their unbeaten streak to five matches when they host Los Angeles FC on Saturday.

Cincinnati (17-8-5, 56 points), second in the Eastern Conference standings, enters the contest following a 2-2 draw in Nashville last weekend.

The home side has not lost in more than a month in MLS play -- Cincinnati's last defeat, a 2-0 decision, came Aug. 24 at Inter Miami.

FCC, however, has dropped each of the previous two meetings against LAFC. The Orange and Blue fell 2-0 in Los Angeles during the 2019 season. LAFC edged FCC 2-1 in Cincinnati in 2022.

"They're one of the deepest teams for me in the league, and so if they have to rest guys, there's going to be hungry players and guys that are pushing for more minutes like you see with our team, with any team at this stage," FCC coach Pat Noonan said. "If our guys think because there's going to be rotation that gets easier, we're approaching it the wrong way."

The Orange and Blue have been paced by Argentinian midfielder Luciano Acosta, who has 12 goals and 18 assists in 28 matches this season -- the 18 assists are tied with the Portland Timbers' Evander for the league lead. Yuya Kubo has 12 goal contributions (10 goals and two assists) in 28 appearances.

LAFC travels to Cincinnati with just one win in six MLS matches but is coming off a 3-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday, when they lifted the Lamar Hunt Trophy as the 2024 U.S. Open Cup champions.

"I think we were due. The boys really wanted it," LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said. "They made it difficult on themselves. That's been the theme of the past couple of weeks; we've been hurting ourselves. We had a stint of this earlier in the season where teams were not beating us; we were beating ourselves. That is troublesome, that is frustrating, but it's also a good problem to have."

Los Angeles (14-8-7, 49 points), fourth in the Western Conference, has not won in MLS play since a 3-0 victory in Seattle on July 20.

LAFC forward Denis Bouanga remains in the hunt for the MLS Golden Boot with 17 goals -- two back of leader Christian Benteke of D.C. United. Midfielder Mateusz Bogusz of Poland has 14 goals and six assists in 27 matches this season.

--Field Level Media