It would have been hard for anybody to predict how well Steve Cherundolo’s first season as Los Angeles FC head coach would go. Least of all, Steve Cherundolo himself.
“I’d be lying to say that’s how I envisioned it,” Cherundolo told Pro Soccer Wire of a season that saw LAFC win both the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup. “I don’t think anybody envisions that.”
But 2022 brought instant success for the longtime U.S. national team right back in his first season as a MLS head coach, and just his second season as a head coach anywhere.
Ahead of last season, there were questions over how an inexperienced head coach would handle the pressure of taking over one of the league’s glamor teams coming off a season where it failed to reach the playoffs.
Those have been replaced by new questions ahead of the 2023 season. Can LAFC still be elite both in domestic and international competition? And if they are, how high will Cherundolo’s coaching stock rise?
To be sure, 2023 is looking like a much bigger challenge for Cherundolo and his staff than 2022.
LAFC’s success last season saw them qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League. The early-season competition presents a paradox for MLS teams: As desirable as a deep run is, it stretches teams thin as fixtures pile up quickly ahead of a long grind of a MLS season.
Many a MLS team has been felled by such fixture congestion. One need look no farther than last season’s Seattle Sounders, who broke the MLS curse by winning CCL but suffered so greatly in the league that their 13-year playoff streak come to an end.
Cherundolo and his team are trying to embrace the challenge as they near a last-16 tie against Alajuelense that starts March 9. But the coach is also aware that the limitations of his squad, as well as MLS salary rules, could both be a headache.
“Playing in the Champions League is the result of a very good season, so we get an opportunity and we want to seize that opportunity,” he said. “It’s not a burden. We’re not afraid of challenge. We respect it, but we’re certainly not afraid of it and we see it as a very big opportunity.”
Depth is the key for any team balancing CCL and MLS and as it so happens, that is a particular concern for Cherundolo going into the season.
“The biggest difference between this current roster and the roster from last season is depth, and now speaking about the lack thereof,” the coach admitted. “We aren’t as deep as we were last year at this moment in time. That could change but at the moment we are not, and so we will have to be smart about our rotations.”
LAFC lost the insanely productive Cristian Arango and the insanely talented but oft-injured Gareth Bale. Also leaving were defensive regulars Sebastien Ibeagha and Franco Escobar, though the club did make a major free agent signing in the form of USMNT center back Aaron Long.
Cherundolo is keen to look outside the organization for answers, but said he feels somewhat hamstrung by MLS salary rules. LAFC somehow found a way to squeeze Bale and Giorgio Chiellini in under budget last season — which Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner somewhat infamously called into question.
This season, though, the club may not be so fortunate. Cherundolo is clearly irked by restrictions which include, but by no means are limited to, a salary cap and a senior roster that is capped at just 20 players.
“It has to financially be doable for us,” he said of new signings. “There are challenges in this league of staying within the means and the budget and the rules. That challenge is not [present] in any of the other leagues within CONCACAF Champions League. So it is a challenge for us and for any MLS team in the Champions League.”
That may be why LAFC has not yet been able to lock down a much-rumored deal for Chelsea’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, which Cherundolo would not be drawn on when asked (“I won’t comment on names or rumors”).
It all makes 2023 look like the biggest challenge yet in Cherundolo’s brief coaching career. Should he guide LAFC to success this year, the speculation around his own future will undoubtedly grow.
Cherundolo is one of the more intriguing candidates to be linked with the vacant USMNT coaching job. His resume has almost everything you’d want: a lengthy playing career in Germany and with the USMNT, experience as a Bundesliga assistant and in the Germany youth national team setup, and now head coaching success domestically. The only thing it lacks, for now, is a sustained record of success.
Though he’s quick to say he’s happy with LAFC, Cherundolo isn’t against the idea of one day coaching the team he played for at two World Cups.
“I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute I was able to play with the U.S. men’s national team and spend with that organization,” Cherundolo said. “If that time [coaching the USMNT] comes around at some point in my career, then I’ll hopefully be able to say the same thing about it. But at the moment, I’m very happy here at LAFC and we have a lot of work to do.”
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