Soccer newsletter: FC Barcelona is on the comeback trail

Hello, and welcome to the weekly L.A. Times soccer newsletter. I’m Kevin Baxter, The Times’ soccer writer, and today we’ll look at Gareth Bale opening his MLS account for a streaking LAFC and the Galaxy ending their slide; LAFC moving to cut off some loyal season-ticket holders during a global pandemic, and the Galaxy’s Javier “Chicharito” Hernández getting a vote of confidence from a former coach in his quest to make his way back to the Mexican national team.

But we start with Barcelona, the iconic Spanish powerhouse that is attempting to rise Phoenix-like from the ashes of financial mismanagement.

Joan Laporta, who presided over one of the most successful years in Barcelona’s history, with the team winning a record six trophies in a 12-month period in 2009 and 2010, was reelected president last year in place of Josep Maria Bartomeu, who resigned in October 2020 along with the team’s board of directors after a vote of no confidence from club members.

Laporta, 60, inherited a nearly $1.4-billion debt and a “terminal” financial crisis so grave that Barcelona had to part with Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player of his generation, to pay its bills. Still, the club is nowhere near balancing its books, so Laporta has begun selling stakes in Barcelona’s La Liga TV rights to raise money.

Earlier this summer, the team, in a pair of transactions, sold 25% of those rights over the next 25 years to Sixth Street, a U.S. private equity group, for $518 million.

“It was necessary. Because we are in a very difficult situation,” Laporta said in a Saturday conversation from Las Vegas, hours before Barcelona beat Real Madrid 1-0 for its second consecutive victory on a four-game U.S. tour. “We want to be back as soon as possible. There is no patience. We have to move in the present, taking care of the future because the fans don’t wait.”

“Now with these deals,” he added, “we are leaving the hospital. The club is almost healthy. Still recovering, but we are back and we are ready to compete at a high level.”

The sale of the TV rights is a gamble that could hamstring Barcelona going forward. But in the short term it has allowed Laporta to demonstrate the club’s ambition by committing more than $130 million to bring in Raphinha, who scored the only goal in the win over Real Madrid, from Leeds United and Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich, two of five transfers Barcelona landed this summer.

“It’s a message to everyone else that Barcelona is still here,” he said.

It’s not like Laporta has forgotten the future, however, since Lewandowski is the only transfer older than 26.

“It’s a very exciting project with young players that have a present and a future,” Laporta said. “The combination, with the very young player with our oldest players, we are creating a middle class between 24 and 25 years old. This combination, we expect that it will work.”

It better because unlike the situation in many U.S. sports, in which it’s not uncommon for big teams to enter a fallow unbuilding stage periodically, European soccer powers can’t afford even one down season. Barcelona, for example, finished second in La Liga, played in the Champions League, made it to the quarterfinals of the Europa League and the semifinals of the Spanish Super Cup, and won 26 games in all competitions last season. But for the second time in three seasons it didn’t win a trophy, so for its supporters, the campaign was a disaster.

“The challenge in this is to win every season. At least to compete,” Laporta said. “Being realistic, we were in a period of our history that we didn’t compete enough. We want to compete again. That’s the reason why we are there.

“Barca is the most important club in the football industry. It is the best-known sports club in the world. We need to [keep] our fans happy.”

For the players, the most challenging part of Barca’s season of turmoil was just trying to stay focused on the game through all the upheaval, said goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who has been with the team since 2014.

“It’s outside noise, but obviously it has an effect because you see the mood of the supporters, you see the mood in the club,” he said. “We made so many changes in the last years that every season there was something new coming up and we couldn’t get really into a flow.

“Hopefully, this season will be different. I think we were quite settled. Of course, we always have to manage and we have to perform. It’s all on us, definitely.”

This summer’s additions will change the personality of the team, but the most important transfer is Lewandowski, a seven-time Bundesliga scoring champion. And Ter Stegen, who also came to Barcelona from Germany, expects his assimilation into the squad will be seamless.

“With some players it’s easier, with some others it’s a bit more difficult,” he said. “We talk about language, we talk about also the integration in the team. Our group is very good in this. It won’t be a big problem.

“Now it’s having a rhythm; the new signings, they get a feeling of what is our style, what is the philosophy of the club and the coach. From then on, it will be super easy. I’m relaxed about the team spirit in general. This won’t be any problem.”

Bale, LAFC keeping winning; Galaxy ends three-game slide

It wasn’t Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring twice in a 20-minute span to turn a loss into a win or Robbie Keane scoring the go-ahead goal in a rivalry game in his MLS debut to help the Galaxy to a second consecutive Supporters’ Shield.

But Gareth Bale’s first score for LAFC on Saturday ultimately might prove just as memorable.

The Welsh national team captain came off the bench in the second half for the second week in a row and 18 minutes later scored an insurance goal to cap a 2-0 road win over Sporting Kansas City that kept LAFC (14-4-3) atop the MLS table and briefly tied Austin for the league lead in scoring.

The sequence started with Bale intercepting an errant pass deep in the Kansas City end and sending it ahead to Cristian Arango at the midfield stripe. Arango, who scored LAFC’s first goal, his seventh in eight games, eventually returned the ball to Bale in space on the wing, and as three defenders collapsed on him at the top of the penalty area, he sent a low left-footed shot inside the right post.

“Nice to come on and grab a goal,” Bale said afterward. “From a personal point of view, it’s nice to get off the mark. And more importantly get the three points.”

He nearly had another in the final minute of stoppage time, but his chip over goalkeeper Tim Melia missed well wide of the same right post.

“The transition’s been just kind of a normal one. What I expected,” he said. “It’s going to take some time. I would be in preseason now in Europe, so I’m getting my fitness back up quickly. I’m starting to feel better and better each day.

“I’m enjoying it here.”

Defender Giorgio Chiellini, another newly arrived veteran from Europe, made his second consecutive start for LAFC but came out at halftime in hot, steamy conditions in Kansas City.

Coach Steve Cherundolo, who has been a master of second-half tactical adjustments this season, also made a formation change at intermission, and it paid off with two goals 27 minutes apart.

“I would always love for us to play to our potential from the first minute on and for 90 minutes. That isn’t always possible for many factors. Fatigue, opponent, weather, field conditions,” said Cherundolo, whose team has won three in a row and lost just once in its last nine MLS games.

“But I would love for this team to always play to their potential. Because if we do, we’re going to win a lot of games and score a lot of goals.”

LAFC is 11-0 when it scores first, and goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau again made his team’s two scores stand up by stopping three shots to record his sixth shutout of the season, matching his career high.

KĂŠvin Cabral of the Galaxy scores against Atlanta on Sunday night.

(James Williamson / Getty Images)

The Galaxy, meanwhile, ran their record to 8-1-1 when scoring first and keeper Jonathan Bond recorded his career-best seventh shutout of the season in a 2-0 win over Atlanta United on Sunday night. But while LAFC has dominated MLS all season, the Galaxy (9-9-3) are hanging on to a playoff position by a thread. They lead Portland for the Western Conference’s seventh and final postseason berth on a tiebreaker.

The win, on goals from Kévin Cabral and Dejan Joveljic, ended a three-game losing streak and was just the fourth victory in the last 13 games in all competitions. It also featured an impressive MLS debut from a newly acquired player in midfielder Gastón Brugman, whom coach Greg Vanney believes could go a long way toward filling one of the team’s greatest needs.

“We’ve been a little bit light in the midfield,” said Vanney, who has been dealing with injuries to Mark Delgado, Rayan Raveloson, Sacha Kljestan and Victor Vázquez. “We had a hard time winning midfield, and if you can’t win midfield, you’re vulnerable.

“[On Sunday], we were able to do it because those guys were back and healthy and in solid fitness. And Gastón getting into the mix was fantastic. A wonderful player. Really suits what we’re trying to do.”

The goals also were positive signs with Cabral scoring off a rebound in the seventh minute for his first goal of the year and Joveljic adding to his team lead by getting his ninth of the season deep into stoppage time. Joveljic has scored in six consecutive home games, tying a team record last matched by Ibrahimovic.

“The most important part for this group is that it’s a win,” Vanney said. “It allows us to build off of this. It’s a real positive thing. We have quality in our locker room. We just need to have all of our pieces out there ready to go.”

The Eastern Conference is keeping the Galaxy in the Western Conference playoff picture. The team has lost just one of six interconference games but is 5-8-2 in the West. The Galaxy will have to turn that around if they hope to stay in the race because just two of their final 13 games are against Eastern Conference foes.

LAFC cancels some of its longest-tenured fans

Speaking of LAFC, the team last week emailed hundreds of longtime season-ticket holders and informed them their memberships would not be renewed for next season because they resold a “substantial portion” of their tickets.

LAFC permits the resale of tickets on the secondary market; in fact, it offers a tutorial on how to do so on its website. But the team said the season-ticket members who received the email resold up to 90% of their tickets, which it claims violates its membership agreement.

LAFC isn’t the only team that has tried to sanction season-ticket holders who have resold their seats. Several seasons ago, the Dodgers stripped ticket brokers of their ability to buy season-ticket packages, believing the team could make more money by cutting out the middle man. This is part of what my colleague Bill Shaikin wrote at the time:

“The Dodgers and other teams generally had enjoyed a mutually beneficial co-existence with ticket brokers. The team would sell them season tickets, cashing in before the season started and counting all the tickets sold — whether used or not — in its attendance. The brokers took the financial risk — they might have to sell some tickets at a loss or not at all — but developed a relationship with customers that trusted the brokers could get tickets for any game or concert in town.

“Over the course of the regular season, brokers say, they might lose or make a little money. The big profit rolls in, they say, when the Dodgers play deep into the postseason. That meant millions of dollars went into the pockets of brokers, not the Dodgers. So after the 2017 season, the Dodgers decided to cut out the brokers.”

An LAFC spokesman declined to discuss the team’s policies on the record but privately said it too was trying to cut out brokers who were making money off the team. The plan backfired horribly.

According to several season-tickets holders who got the email, many of whom bought tickets packages long before LAFC’s first game, the team did not reach out ahead of the email telling them they were in violation of team policy. Instead, LAFC suddenly and without warning canceled hundreds of ticket holders, some of whom have spent $10,000 or more in supporting the team since its inception.

Many of those impacted told me they have been unable to attend games regularly since 2019 because of COVID-19 but wanted to continue backing the team and planned to return to the stadium when it was safe.

“I have comorbidities. I don’t always feel comfortable,” said one longtime season-ticket holder who didn’t want to use his name, fearing retaliation from the team for speaking out on the matter. “I planned on going to games this year. It hasn’t worked out. I’ve lost money.”

Several fans whose tickets were canceled contacted their ticket representatives and were told nothing could be done. However, Seth Burton, LAFC’s senior vice president for communications and content, said in a text message that the team would work with anyone who believes their accounts have been wrongly targeted.

LAFC, which has more than 17,000 season-ticket holders and a waiting list of potential buyers, has long referred to its supporters as family members and also has marketed the fan environment and relationship with the team. Last week’s actions will damage that, especially coming just days after Bale and Chiellini made their MLS debuts, raising the excitement level around the team.

“That’s a good strategy so long as you’re winning,” Shaikin told me. And LAFC is definitely doing that. The team tops the league in wins and points and is closing in on its second Supporters’ Shield in four seasons.

But, he added, “If you start losing and you go back to the fans you dumped, well, good luck with that.”

Chicharito’s World Cup pursuit backed by a former coach

Galaxy captain Javier “Chicharito” Hernández reportedly spoke with Mexican coach Tata Martino last week in hopes of clearing a way for his return to the national team. Hernández, 33, Mexico’s all-time leading scorer, hasn’t played for El Tri since the summer of 2019, a banishment said to be linked to a violation of team rules for which the player had refused to apologize.

However, at least one influential former coach said Hernández, the Galaxy’s top scorer over the last two seasons, should be on the squad.

“I think so,” Tigres manager Miguel Herrera, who coached Mexico to the round of 16 in the 2014 World Cup, said in Spanish. “He is doing everything he can. But I don’t decide. [Martino] is the coach.

“Sometimes the best aren’t [there] because they can’t adapt to what the coach wants. Javier will be called if the coach wants him.”

Herrera, who lost just seven of 36 games in less than two years as Mexico’s manager, chuckled during a brief interview at the Tigres’ offices in Monterrey when asked whether he likes his longtime nickname Piojo, which translates as louse or pest.

“It’s a nickname that the Atlante club gave me,” said Herrera, who played and later coached for the Mexico City team. “When they would shout ‘Piojo,’ I would turn around. We used to be very mischievous when it came to nicknames.”

And finally there’s this …

The Mexican soccer federation announced Thursday that it has suspended the coaching staff of its U20 women’s national team, including longtime manager Maribel Domínguez, pending an unspecified investigation. U17 head coach Ana Galindo is taking over the team in the interim. Earlier this month, the federation parted ways with Gerardo Torrado, the federation’s sporting director; Ignacio Hierro, the national team’s director; and Luis Pérez, coach of the U20 team, after the men’s and women’s teams failed to qualify for their next World Cups and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Podcast

Don’t miss my weekly podcast on the Corner of the Galaxy site as co-host Josh Guesman and I discuss the Galaxy each Monday. You can listen to the most recent podcast here.

Quotebook

“There’s never been in history something like this. It’s going to be demanding but at the same exciting.”

Jamal Musiala, a teenage forward for Bayern Munich and the German national team, on the first club season that will be intersected by a World Cup