Tafari advances LAFC in Champions Cup with 1-0 victory against Real España

LOS ANGELES – Nkosi Tafari lifted the Los Angeles Football Club to a 1-0 victory against Real España on Tuesday during the second leg of the first round in the Concacaf Champions Cup before 10, 491 at BMO Stadium. 

In the 64th minute, Tafari scored the match’s lone goal. The defender sent a close range left-footed shot into the roof of the net following a LAFC free kick. It’s Tafari’s first goal since joining the Black and Gold in January 2025. Goalkeeper Thomas Hasal added LAFC's second cleansheet of the month. 

"It's absolutely massive. I want to give all credit to our keeper Thomas Hasal getting a shutout. Without him, we tie 1-1. Goal or not, the shutout as a defender it's my job. I'm happy for him," said Tafari. 

"When Kos [Nkosi Tafari] started the preseason, he wasn't always in the starting team. We were trying different things and his mentalty was exceptional...I'm just happy for him to get rewarded, even with tonight's goal. He's doing a lot of the things we're asking him to do," said head coach Marc Dos Santos. 

In the 90th minute, Hasal ended Real España’s chances of a draw. The Canadian goal keeper blocked a penalty kick by Jhow Benavídez with thirty seconds left of play. 

Tuesday’s match marks three wins in eight days and the second time in team history that LAFC has started the season with three consecutive wins. Los Angeles extended its home win count in Concacaf Champions Cup matches to seven. It was a noticably different night compared to last week's match up against Real España in Honduras. 

At halftime, both sides remained scoreless- a stark contrast to the first leg’s match, where LAFC had entered the locker room leading 5-0. Real España’s goal keeper Luis Lopez saved two shots on target including a right-footed shot from outside the box by Tyler Boyd in the 27th minute. LAFC pressed early and often but couldn’t find success in the final third. The Honduran side's defense repeatedly denied openings for LAFC’s attackers to get clear shots.  

Statistically, LAFC dominated once again. The Black and Gold held possesion 58% and ended the night with seven shots on target compared to Los Aurinegros' two shots and 42% ball control, using the same 4-2-3-1 formation as last time. 

Dos Santos made changes immediately out of the locker room, brining on forward Nathan Ordaz, Timmy Tillman and 17-year-old Jude Terry. The midfielder made his first-team debut for Los Angeles as Denis Bouanga, Son-Heung Min, and Stephen Eustáquio departed the match.

Part of the night's focus centered on creating new rotations and giving players more mintues on the pitch. "I'm happy to see other players get opportunities today," said Dos Santos, "I think Jude had a fantastic preseason, a player from our academy, so I'm happy to see him get on the field." 

Despite heading into the night with an aggregate goal victory of 6-1, Dos Santos stressed the importance of a victory and keeping momentum going into the regular season. 

"I try to have a lot of clarity on how we want to go about things, but we're all in this together. It's been a good start because it was a hard start going to Honduras in that stadium- it was a challenging grass. In the first half, we were in a great position to qualify for the next round. The game against Mimai does not define the season. But it was an emotional game of us, then trying to finish a game here where mentally, you could have a group think 'we're already in'. What we said is we have to win. We have to think about this game as three-points. So it's a good start, but there's still so much work to do, so we're very focused on what's next."

"We want to build something that, at mid-season, we want to be on top of our game and we want to keep going in the way that we've been doing," said midfielder Mathieu Choiniere. 

LAFC will face L.D. Alajuelense of Costa Rica in the next stage of the tournament, with a 7-1 aggregate-goal victory against España over two legs. The Concacaf Champions Cup’s Round of 16 will take place in March. LAFC continues its regular-season play on Saturday Feburary 28, against the Houston Dynamo at Shell Energy Stadium.