The Los Angeles Football Club won the first match in club history, 1-0, at Seattle, on March 4, 2018. Since then, the Seattle Sounders FC are unbeaten in seven home matches against Los Angeles Football Club (W4 D3) including a 3-1 win in the first round of the 2020 playoffs. Los Angeles Football Club has managed a draw in each of its last two visits to Lumen Field.
This will be the third MLS Cup Playoffs meeting and fourth knockout meeting between the Seattle Sounders FC and Los Angeles Football Club. The Seattle Sounders FC won both previous playoff encounters, 3-1 away in the 2019 Western Conference Final and 3-1 at home in the first round in 2020. Los Angeles Football Club did knock out the Seattle Sounders FC out of MLS is Back in 2020, with a 4-1 in the Round of 16.
The Seattle Sounders FC are unbeaten in 19 straight home matches in the MLS Cup Playoffs (W17 D2, including a penalty shoot-out loss in 2021) dating back to 2014. It’s the longest home unbeaten run in MLS playoff history, with only one other team (Los Angeles Galaxy – 11 straight from 2002 – 2010) having a run even half as long.
Los Angeles Football Club have won four of its last five matches (D1) including its two-game sweep of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the first round of this year’s MLS Cup Playoffs. Dating back to the beginning of last year’s playoffs, the Los Angeles Football Club has lost only one of its 11 knockout matches against MLS opposition (W8 D2, including a penalty shoot-out win in the 2022 MLS Cup Final), a 2-0 defeat to the Los Angeles Galaxy in the fifth round of the 2023 US Open Cup.
The Seattle Sounders FC have scored six goals in two playoffs matches against the Los Angeles Football Club, with Raul Ruidiaz (3)., Nicolas Ludeiro (2) or Jordan Morris (1) scoring all six. Including assists, the trio has totaled 13 goal contributions on the six playoff goals the Seattle Sounders FC have scored against the Los Angeles Football Club.
Denis Bouanga has scored nine goals in his last five MLS Matches (regular season and playoffs), including scoring three times against the Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the first round, equaling the most in a five-match span (including playoffs) in league history. The most goals scored in a span of six matches (including playoffs) in league history is 11 by Josef Martinez in 2018.
