The Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) advanced to the final of the Concacaf Champions League with a 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Union at BMO Stadium. LAFC won the series 4-1 on aggregate, having played to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Philadelphia.
With a win the LAFC would make it through to the Champions League Final for the second time in the last four years, LAFC took the lead in the 13th minute when Timothy Tillman scored his first-ever goal in the competition. Ilie Sanchez saw his close-range header saved on the line by Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake, but Tillman was able to react quickest to the rebound and slam it into the open net giving the home side the lead.
The score would stay that way until late in the second half, despite the Union being reduced to 10 men when Olivier Mbazio was sent off for collecting a second yellow card in the 59th minute. However, LAFC finally put the series out of reach in the 82nd minute when Carlos Vela played Mahala Opoku into the box and the Ghanaian forward fired home to double the LAFC lead.
Denis Bouanga, the 2023 Concacaf Champions League leading scorer, rounded out the scoring in the 90th minute, tallying his sixth goal of the competition off a feed from Jose Cifuentes to give his team a 3-0 victory.
LAFC has now advanced to the Concacaf Champions League Final for the second time in club history, having previously reached the Final in 2020.
LAFC is the second team in MLS history to reach the Final of the Concacaf Champions League, or its predecessor, the Concacaf Champions Cup, on multiple occasions.
LAFC is the only MLS club to reach the Final of the Concacaf Champions League since the current format was adopted in 2008.
