LAFC hosted Cruz Azul at BMO Stadium on Tuesday night in the first leg of their two-game Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinal, with a place in the semifinals on the line. The return match is set for Tuesday, April 14, at Estadio Cuauhtémoc in Puebla, Mexico, and the winner on aggregate will move on to face either Toluca or Galaxy.
LAFC entered the series unbeaten through ten matches for the first time in club history and was the only unbeaten team in Major League Soccer at the time of the preview. The club was 8-0-2 in 2026 before facing Cruz Azul and 3-0-1 in Concacaf Champions Cup play, while its 24-3 edge in goals across all competitions underscored how quickly it has separated itself from the rest of the field. At home, LAFC was 5-0-1 in all competitions and had clean sheets in five of those six matches, a run built in part on Hugo Lloris' six saves in a 6-0 win over Orlando City on Saturday night and his 30th career shutout in MLS play in just over two seasons.
Son Heung-Min has been central to that surge with seven assists in Major League Soccer and four more in Concacaf Champions Cup play in 2026, while Denis Bouanga added a hat trick against Orlando City and led the team with eight goals across all competitions, including four in the continental tournament. LAFC has now appeared in the Concacaf Champions Cup four times in its nine-year history and reached the quarterfinal round every time, with runs to the final in 2020 and 2023. That record gives Tuesday's matchup a familiar edge: the club has been here before, but not against a Cruz Azul side that arrives as the reigning champion and one of the competition's most accomplished teams.
Cruz Azul advanced past Vancouver FC and CF Monterrey to reach the quarterfinals and carried in the weight of a 2025 title, when it beat the Vancouver Whitecaps in the final. Founded in 1927 and nicknamed La Máquina, the Mexican club is tied with Club América for the most CCC or CCL trophies at seven and remains one of the few Mexican sides never relegated from the country's top division. The timing makes the stakes even clearer, with the 27-team tournament moving toward a May 30 final and a berth in the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup attached to the winner, but the immediate task is simpler: survive the first leg, then handle the trip to Puebla with the series still in reach.
LAFC's form says it can make that case. Cruz Azul's history says it will not be easy. The gap between those two truths is where this quarterfinal will be decided.
