Last season the U.S. Open Cup was little more than an afterthought for LAFC, when the club thought about the tournament at all.
The team’s run to the final of last spring’s CONCACAF Champions League, combined with the start of the MLS schedule, meant LAFC played a game every four days through the first three months of the season. By the end of the year, the team had played an MLS-record 53 games in four countries and two continents, traveling far enough to circumnavigate the globe 2½ times.
There was simply no room for the U.