Giorgio Chiellini, LAFC turning things around amid busy slate

Among his 74 UEFA Champions League appearances, Giorgio Chiellini never once faced a Serie A club.

So in April, when the Los Angeles Football Club reached the quarterfinal round of the CONCACAF Champions League, the 38-year-old Italian defender thought it was “weird” to play another MLS team.

To Chiellini, the CONCACAF encounter against the Vancouver Whitecaps and the subsequent semifinal against Philadelphia seemed more like Italian Cup contests than matches for the continental prize.

Competing against familiar league foes in Champions League is among the quirks of playing professional soccer in the U.S., which Chiellini has experienced firsthand with LAFC for the past 12 months.

Other oddities include an “unreal” travel schedule and a two-leg Champions League final jammed in the middle of the league schedule rather than at the end like everywhere else.

“Here is the only league in the world that you play a Champions League final after three days a game, three days a game, and another three days a game,” Chiellini said. “It’s not possible. Mentally, also physically, but mentally if the Champions League game is at the end of the season there is a reason.”

Finishing runner-up to Mexico’s Leon, the tournament marked Chiellini’s third Champions League bridesmaid performance and LAFC’s second.

Three weeks removed from that letdown, the club remains as busy as ever.

Five matches since the second leg of the final on June 4 have yielded forgettable performances and, as of late, determined wins.

Refocused on MLS and the coming Leagues Cup, a needed road victory in Kansas City and a strong defensive effort at home to beat Seattle, 1-0, on Wednesday lifted LAFC (9-3-5, 32 points) atop of the Western Conference standings midway through the season.

“I’m very happy for this group and about this group because everyone is involved, everyone has taken part and helped a lot,” Chiellini said days after playing a full 90 minutes against the Sounders. “It was a huge win, what we did in Kansas City, because of our effort. We worked all together.

“Probably we deserved to win other games before that one, but at the end, if you’re working this way the results arrive. And with the same confidence and effort we did against Seattle, we were able to win.”

The reigning MLS Cup champions nailed down back-to-back victories for the first time since four straight in the spring – including dominating the Whitecaps 6-0 on aggregate after 180 minutes.

As Vancouver returns on Saturday for a run-of-the-mill regular-season match, the Whitecaps (5-5-7, 22 points) are in search of their first road win in 15 MLS games dating to last July.

“We have a lot of respect for Vancouver and their play and that type of play and we know that with an average game we will not win,” Chiellini said. “We have to do something better, technically, physically, mentally, all these things.”

Unbeaten in seven home meetings against Vancouver in all competitions, LAFC has repeatedly met that mark, averaging more than three goals a game against the Canadians at BMO Stadium.

“They say, ‘No, Vancouver never wins away,’” Chiellini noted. “Hopefully not Wednesday.”

The necessity of winning at home is a reality MLS shares with every pro league, Chiellini acknowledged. Unlike everywhere else, he went on to say, there are few guarantees in the MLS parity party.