CARSON — Blazing red flares ignited in the stands occupied by Los Angeles Football Club’s 3252 supporters late in Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup match at Dignity Health Sports Park as their team, in the biggest match of the year so far, went down in flames. To the Galaxy. Again.

From the opening whistle through the completion of Wednesday’s 3-1 drubbing, neither LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo nor his players could prevent another confusing, enraging and, perhaps for the first time, embarrassing performance for the visiting fan base to watch in the venue that has become the franchise’s house of horrors.

The U.S. Open Cup Round of 16 match brought LAFC to a place where it had never won in seven attempts for an occasion when winning was all that mattered.

In that respect, nothing changed for Major League Soccer’s proud five-time league champions who improved to 6-0-2 against LAFC at home and 7-3-5 overall.

The Galaxy used the 15th “El Trafico” and the series’ second knockout match to assert ownership of the derby, having added two more wins in Carson already this year.

“Their reactions were as a group. As a collective. And all our reactions were all individual,” Cherundolo said. “That’s the difference in this game.”

During the first meeting last month, LAFC fought to the end but could not recover after conceding a pair of goals in the first 30 minutes. There was, at least, some relief to be taken from a strong second half that fell almost unluckily short.

There is none of that after this loss. With LAFC’s life on the line in the lone competition outside MLS that the club was eligible for this year, nothing clicked. Early chances missed. Runs late or not at all. Passes heavy.

“I saw an LAFC team that was undisciplined at times tactically,” Cherundolo said. “Preoccupied or occupied with the wrong situations, whether it was the referee or opponents and just not focused on what they need to do to win the game. And that’s disappointing.”

Carlos Vela departed with a tweaked left quadriceps 20 minutes into the match and the team didn’t get its one shot on target until Ryan Hollingshead’s consolation prize goal prevented a shutout in the 85th minute.

Diego Palacios, perhaps the best left back in the league right now, went head over heels late in the opening half, entered the concussion protocol and left the team exposed for the Galaxy’s second-half run. This was a turn of the tables considering what the first few months looked like for LAFC with several late results.

Up and down the lineup, too many players in Black & Gold didn’t show up.

“We all feel pretty bad,” said midfielder Ilie Sanchez, who like his team was a strong performer during the first block of the season but is also 0-2 against the Galaxy. “Tonight has been different than the first time that we came here in the season. Last time we gifted the first half. Tonight we gifted the whole game and like this, it’s very, very difficult to get the results.”

Chicho Arango whiffed on LAFC’s best early chance and none of LAFC’s attackers seemed in sync. Forward Mahala Opoku stepped on for Vela and was banged around right away by the physical home team.

Center back Mamadou Fall, 19, appeared overly emotional during and after the match, another aspect of the evening’s embarrassment. He was among several LAFC players, the MLS leaders in mass confrontation citations, whose skirmish with their hosts after the match was “immature and stupid,” Cherundolo said.

The one person who seemed to be ready to move on was the even-keel coach, who noted that his time spent playing in Germany equipped him to handle losing.

In 2003, Cherundolo’s Hannover 96 team visited its heated rival, Eintracht Braunschweig, for a German cup match like the one LAFC dropped against the Galaxy in front of 24,174 locals, the most ever to watch a Galaxy cup match at home.

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The Hannover captain played 81 minutes in Braunschweig’s much smaller arena and earned a yellow card during his team’s 2-0 loss in the Lower Saxony Derby.

A moment in time that he remembers as a bad game for the collective group made worse by unlucky moments.

“One thing compounded into another,” he remembered. “Just one of those bad days at the office. There wasn’t really anything going on to mention about rivalry. It’s just a bad day. That’s pretty much all it was.”

Years later, coaching a club that keeps falling short of expectations against its biggest rival, another bad day.

“At this level, at the professional level, players have to be mentally stronger to sustain those moments that are tough and understand that the only ones who can help in that moment are the players themselves,” he said. “I’m not too upset about it at this stage of the season. Unfortunately, we are no longer in this competition but this is definitely an experience that we will grow on as a group.”