{"id":47124,"date":"2026-04-10T23:57:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=47124"},"modified":"2026-04-10T23:57:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:57:03","slug":"lafc-brings-record-clean-sheet-start-into-game-vs-skidding-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=47124","title":{"rendered":"LAFC brings record clean-sheet start into game vs. skidding Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<section id=\"0\" class=\" w-full\">\n<div class=\"xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0\"><span class=\"text-0.8 leading-tight\">Apr 7, 2026; Los Angeles, CA, USA; LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris (1) defends the goal against Cruz Azul in the first half of a Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal at BMO Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>The Portland Timbers will try to snap a five-match winless streak when they host Western Conference-leading Los Angeles FC on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-2\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>The question heading into the match is not whether the Timbers (1-4-1, 4 points) can win the game, but rather can they at least score a goal?<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">\n<p>LAFC (5-0-1, 16 points), led by former French national team and Tottenham Hotspur star Hugo Lloris in goal, have set an MLS record with six straight clean sheets to start a season.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-5\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-6\">\n<p>Lloris, who helped lead France to the 2018 World Cup, has made 22 saves in the six contests, including six in last week&#8217;s 6-0 victory over Orlando City.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-7\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-8\">\n<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t go into games thinking about, \u2018Oh, we have to keep a clean sheet,'&#8221; Los Angeles coach Marc Dos Santos said. &#8220;We go into games thinking about what we have to do as a group, collectively.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-9\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-10\">\n<p>To that end, LAFC is tied for second in goals scored in MLS with 14. Forward Denis Bouanga leads the team with four goals, including a hat trick that took just 28 minutes to complete against Orlando, while Son Heung-Min leads the league with seven assists.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-11\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-12\">\n<p>The only blip on LAFC&#8217;s record so far this season is a 0-0 draw at Austin FC on March 21.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-13\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-14\">\n<p>Portland, which is 0-4-1 in its last five matches since a season-opening 3-2 home victory over the Columbus Crew on Feb. 21, has allowed a Western Conference-worst 15 goals while scoring nine times.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-15\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-16\">\n<p>The Timbers come in off a 3-2 loss at MLS Cup runner-up Vancouver last Saturday in which they allowed two goals in second-half stoppage time to take a shocking defeat. <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-17\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-18\">\n<p>Portland coach Phil Neville knows his squad faces a big challenge on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-19\">  <\/section>\n<section id=\"section-20\">\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re a team that has not conceded any goals this season and they don&#8217;t give away many chances,&#8221; Neville said. &#8220;In terms of attacking play, I think we&#8217;re going to have to be really, really, really good in our attacking play, our attacking movements and our attacking control.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-21\">\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/lafc-brings-record-clean-sheet-start-into-game-vs-skidding-portland\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apr 7, 2026; Los Angeles, CA, USA; LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris (1) defends the goal against Cruz Azul in the first half of a Concacaf Champions&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}