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Los Angeles FC

Carlos Vela continues to star in LAFC sophomore season

LOS ANGELES — This season is only four games in, but one player is already standing out as the top attacker in the league — LAFC’s Carlos Vela.

Vela’s early domination is easily apparent. He has a league-best six goals over only four games — leading D.C.’s Wayne Rooney, Houston’s Memo Rodriguez and Kansas City’s Krisztian Nemeth, who each are tied for second with four goals apiece. He’s also taken more shots and placed more of them on frame so far than any other player in the MLS.

It isn’t just Vela’s ability to attack the goal that makes him such a valuable player on the pitch for LAFC. He’s tied for most assists in the league with three on the season, and his draw on this attack gives him the ability to drag away defenders, opening holes for other players.

Beginning in preseason, both Vela and LAFC coach Bob Bradley have been vocal about the focus for Vela this season — winning the MVP award. He wasn’t close last season, notching 14 goals and 13 assists. Atlanta’s Josef Martinez scored 31 goals and added six assists on his way to the MLS Cup and the MVP award. But Vela also spent more than a month last season in Russia with the Mexican national team vying for the World Cup, undercutting any real chances at winning the title.

This season will be different. Barring a call up for the Gold Cup — which would still be a shorter time commitment — Vela is on pace to pass last year’s scoring statistics in the first half of the season. The offense likely won’t stay red-hot forever, and most players don’t make it through a season without suffering a scoring slump or two. However, for Vela, his opening performances so far this year reflect the impact he hopes to make on the MLS.

“I know I can be one of the best in this league,” Vela said. “I’m trying to show that every game.”

His potential showed particularly strongly Saturday during the team’s 5-0 rout of the San Jose Earthquakes. With three goals and an assist, Vela played a vital part in four of the team’s five goals. 

“I think it says a lot for the league when there’s talented players that are fun to watch,” Bradley said after Vela’s hat trick performance. “We challenge Carlos to be better all the time. He enjoys the football that we play. He has really enjoyed having a bigger leadership role and I think it shows every time he steps foot onto the field.”

Goal No. 1: One-on-one with the keeper

Relentless. That’s the best way to describe Vela, especially when he senses a goalkeeper is off balance or struggling. His positioning on this run was perfectly timed, letting off a burst of speed to streak out ahead of his lone defender once the pass was sent forward.

Although this goal was mostly a massive error on the part of the keeper, Vela’s intense run to create a one-on-one challenge forced the keeper to take his eye off the ball, whiff on the kick and open a lane for Vela to walk the ball into the net.

Goal No. 2: Full-field streak

Vela’s second goal highlighted his ability to move off the ball. He starts this run deep on the opposite flank, watching as Diego Rossi also sets himself up to take the ball with space on the left side of the goal box. Once the initial pass is released to Rossi, Vela chooses his angle and cuts hard, allowing for a small target of space for a pass between himself and his defender. His run is long enough and patient enough that Rossi has several seconds — from when Vela is at the top of the box to when he finally finishes the cross — to connect with him.

That final sliding kick into the goal is a perfect cap to make the brace look cool, but the real work of the goal came in the initial run to create that much space for that long. The Rossi-Vela connection has been special since the first game of the team’s opening season, and part of that is the way both players time their runs for each other. 

Goal No. 3: The left-footed curler

This one goes down as Vela’s prettiest goal of the year (so far). The thing about guarding Vela is he only needs a half-foot of space to completely destroy a defense. Most soccer players are coached to look for a few inches of separation to strike on goal, any breath of space between themselves and a defender to attack the goal. The extremes to which Vela will take this, however, are what sets him apart in MLS.

Already leading by three goals with less than a third of the game left, Vela still probes on the attack. When his defender sags off him in a crowded lane at the top of the box, Vela notes the keeper is off his line and a little out of position and curls this shot immediately. The pace and the angle of the ball make it impossible to stop.

Vela isn’t perfect by any extreme — he’s been held fairly hostage by two defenses so far this season, notching zero goals and assists against both Sporting KC and Real Salt Lake. Still, even in games when he couldn’t make a tangible impact on the stat sheet, Vela’s presence on the field creates opportunities, drawing defenders and setting up other players to succeed.

With three wins and six goals under his belt, the captain will look to continue his early MVP campaign next week in D.C.