LAFC wins second Supporters’ Shield in club history
NEW YORK (Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022) – The Los Angeles Football Club have won the 2022 Supporters’ Shield, awarded by the supporters to the MLS team with the best overall regular season record, by virtue of a 2-1 victory over the Portland Timbers today. With the honor, LAFC has secured the top seed and home-field advantage throughout the Audi 2022 MLS Cup Playoffs and will compete in the 2023 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League as the winner of the 2022 Supporters’ Shield.
LAFC has secured a first-round bye in the postseason and will begin their playoff journey on Oct. 20 in the Western Conference semifinals.
Led by first-year head coach Steve Cherundolo, LAFC showed tremendous year-to-year improvement, finishing at the top of league standings in 2022 after finishing ninth in the Western Conference in 2021. The club holds a 21-8-4 record with one game remaining on their regular season schedule.
Cherundolo’s first year in charge brought the best out of forward Cristian ‘Chicho’ Arango as he scored a career-high 16 goals this season, while adding five assists. Star forward Carlos Vela also joined an elite group of MLS players this season as he became just the fifth player in league history to record 10 goals and 10 assists in three different seasons. He is tied for second alongside Jaime Moreno, Preki, and Sebastian Giovinco for the must such seasons and sits just one 10-goal, 10-assist campaign from tying Diego Valeri for most in league history.
Breakout seasons from budding stars José Cifuentes, Diego ‘Chiqui’ Palacios, and Kwadwo Opoku contributed to LAFC’s success in 2022. Both Cifuentes and Palacios emerged as integral members of a World Cup-bound Ecuador team this season with Cifuentes producing a career-high 14 goal contributions from midfield while Palacios was named to the 2022 MLS All-Star team at left back. Likewise, 21-year-old forward Kwadwo Opoku has started 20 games for the club and is tied with Cifuentes for the third-most goals for LAFC this season with seven in his first year as a starter.
The Supporters’ Shield, which uses points per game to determine a winner, returns to the Western Conference for the first time since 2019 when LAFC won it last. Below is the list of all-time Supporters’ Shield winners, as sorted in reverse chronological order.
Additionally, LAFC clinched a berth in the 2023 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League as the winner of the 2022 Supporters’ Shield. They will join the Philadelphia Union who qualified as the top team in the Eastern Conference standings, 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup champion Orlando City SC, and 2022 Canadian Championship winner Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
LAFC will host Nashville SC in their final regular season game of 2022 on Decision Day (Oct. 9) with an opportunity to finish 2022 with the best home record in club history (14-1-2) with a win over Nashville. With a victory, they would also tie the 2018 New York Red Bulls and 2021 New England Revolution for most regular season wins (22) during the post-shootout era, and their 70 points on the season would be the fourth-most won by a club in the regular season in league history.
