The Los Angeles Football club visited Denver in November without much hope. But from the outside looking in, Colorado Rapids midfielder Kellyn Acosta saw something else.

Since joining MLS as an expansion franchise in 2018, LAFC, which begins its fifth season at Banc of California on Saturday, has received as much attention as any other club in the 27-year-old league.

An ambitious celebrity ownership group. A shining beacon of a stadium built in downtown Los Angeles populated by passionate supporters. An entertaining, attack-minded brand of soccer that made them competitive from the start.

Each of these elements and more sparked conversations and envy inside the league, leading players of Acosta’s caliber to take notice.

“You get pictures and kind of get jealous wishing you could be a part of that,” the 26-year-old Texan, one of America’s top midfielders, said in February after joining LAFC in a trade. “Being here now I’m in shock with the whole culture and everything about the club. I’m still in awe really. Before you’re just thinking they’re empty words, but when you experience it, it’s totally different.”

Defender Ryan Hollingshead was in the same camp as Acosta when the 30-year-old defender got traded from FC Dallas to LAFC two weeks ago.

As a close friend of Walker Zimmerman, the starting center back during LAFC’s first two seasons, Hollingshead developed a strong early impression of where the project could lead.

“My overall picture is we need more teams like LAFC in the league because they’re bringing the league to a level that the league needs to grow to,” he said. “There’s too much disparity right now between the teams.”

In terms of investment in academy and training facilities, stadiums and player development, this is true.

On the field, however, the MLS continues to maintain a proven parity.

Despite the flash, four years under head coach Bob Bradley lacked enough defining victories to launch LAFC into another stratosphere.

So in response to the club’s first missed playoff berth, the coaching staff and player roster underwent significant churn.

“We tried to inject MLS experience, character and mentality with as much quality as possible,” first-year head coach Steve Cherundolo said. “And while doing that, you try to balance the roster out and I think that’s exactly what we did. I think we did a great job of that.”

Free-agent midfielder Ilie Sanchez signed with LAFC after five years in Kansas City for the reasons Acosta and Hollingshead expressed.

Like them, the Spaniard has an expectation of playing on a team that wins LAFC’s first MLS Cup, in part because he can’t imagine a scenario in which captain Carlos Vela leaves when his contract expires in June.

“It is not about the individual players,” Cherundolo pointed out. “It is about LAFC and winning as many games as possible. I think if we focus on that and everything we do, our message is directed towards that and our work is directed towards that, then we will get the most out of every player.”

If that’s true in Vela’s case, and he said he feels strong and fit following an injury-plagued 2021, the group will get a big boost on the field.

Related Articles

Vela has played an important role in preseason while he and his teammates, including a new clear-cut No. 1 goalkeeper in Canadian Maxime Crepeau, jelled with Cherundolo.

The first competitive test for the group will come against Acosta’s former teammates.

The Rapids already have two official matches under their belt in 2022, bowing out of the CONCACAF Champions League following a penalty-kick shootout in the snow Wednesday at home.

COLORADO AT LAFC

Kickoff: 12:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Banc of California Stadium

TV/Radio: Univision, TUDN (Spanish)/710 AM; 980 AM (Spanish)