A private jet landing on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport was far from unusual. But this latest arrival seemed a little different, based on the huddle of reporters and photographers baying for a first look at Los Angeles’ latest celebrity. While many of the assembled media had never heard of Japanese manager Robaato Rasamu, he was clearly a man with a growing reputation.
As Rasamu exited the plane, flashbolts went off and he was inundated with quickfire questions about whether he could speak English, how much he knew about American soccer, and whether he was planning to buy a goalkeeper. Rasamu shot a wide smile as club president Gabriel Hernández raised his arm aloft and took full control of dealing with the journalists.
This chaotic welcome was the latest event in Rasamu’s absolute whirlwind of a few days. After nine years as a Football Manager, on 14 December 2032 he’d received arguably the biggest opportunity of his career as Major League Soccer side LAFC came calling. Since then, he’d had messages of support from people all over the football world, including Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola sending a short but sweet WhatsApp to wish him good luck. Rasamu was pretty overwhelmed by the reception, especially the wild press conference that saw him announced to the Los Angeles media.
Who Are Los Angeles Football Club?
Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) is a professional team playing in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer. The club was established on 30 October 2014 and first appeared in MLS as an expansion team in the 2018 season. LAFC won the Supporters’ Shield in its second season, led by Mexican legend Carlos Vela, then won its first MLS Cup in 2022.
A mark of the standard of club Rasamu joins is LAFC being worth £720m, compared to his former club Pachuca’s value of £25m. LAFC play at the 22,000-capacity BMO Stadium, located in Exposition Park, with superb infrastructure of 18 training facilities and 20 youth facilities, youth recruitment and junior coaching. It also has £45m in the bank, a transfer budget of £10m and a wage budget of £613k of which it was spending around half.
During this save, LAFC has won three Western Conference titles in 2025, 2027 and 2028, three Supporters’ Shields in 2025, 2027 and 2028, and one MLS Cup in 2026. But the club has still never won the CONCACAF Champions League, which is of course Rasamu’s primary target. Rasamu’s new board want him to reach the MLS Cup, finish in the top two of the Supporters’ Shield and reach the latter stages of the CONCACAF Champions League.
Meet The LAFC Squad
Rasamu’s first few days at LAFC saw his best two players sold as Stipe Biuk moved to Saudi side Al-Hazem for £5.5m and midfielder Ivo Ovando joined América for a club record £7m. With them gone, the best player at the club is midfielder Davy Woolard, along with winger Simone Stanzione, centre-back Jon Johnson and the club’s record signing for £12m from Dallas centre midfielder Ben Foster.
Rasamu moved quickly to bolster his attack, returning to Pachuca to snap up wonderkid striker Luis Fernández for £7m rising to £10m. Staying in México, he snapped up Cuahtémoc Clark arrived for £3m Pumas, returned to Japan to sign midfielder Takanori Yoshii for £4.5m from Gamba Osaka then added goalkeeper Ronald Mejía for £800k from Xelajú and left-back Juan Centurión for £600k from Guairena.
With a fairly hefty rebuild completed, Rasamu believed a fairly basic 4-3-3 was the best approach available to him. However, he also had the 4-2-4 he used at Pachuca in his back pocket.
First Taste Of CONCACAF Champions League
The 2033 season began with Rasamu’s first taste of his second continental trophy as LAFC entered the first round of the CONCACAF Champions League. LAFC’s opponent, ironically having just stolen their goalkeeper, was Guatemalan side Xelajú. It didn’t take long for Rasamu’s first goal as LAFC boss as Stanzione teed up Woolard to slam home. That opened the floodgates as Foster and Johnson, Foster and Woolard doubled their tallies, Stanzione made it six and Fernández bagged his debut goal. Mejía somehow conceded three times and they strolled to a new club record highest scoring match! A more controlled 3-0 win followed for a 10-3 aggregate success.
A familiar foe followed as LAFC took on Mexican side Pumas. The first leg saw Rasamu make a swift return to México and it started poorly but an own goal got them level before Fernández curled in a beauty. Stanzione extended the lead but defensive fragilities showed again to allow Pumas back in to draw 3-3. Back in LA, they started slowly again but an inspired hat trick by Fernández turned the game in their favour. A nonsense penalty saw Pumas close in but Fernández’s wonderful curled effort with the outside of his right foot and an own goal sealed a thrilling 5-3 win.
That sent LAFC into the quarter finals against another Mexican side Tigres. They started brightly as Fernández teed up Stanzione, tapped home winger Nathan Ordaz’s cross, stabbed home a third and wrapped up his hat trick inside 41 minutes. There was still time for Stanzione to slam home a fifth before half time and he made it double hat tricks to wrap up a stunning 6-1 victory. And a poor 3-0 loss in México was enough for a 6-4 aggregate victory.
Another familiar foe followed as LAFC faced América, who’ve won the last three Mexican titles. The first half of the first leg at the Azteca was grim as América smashed 14 shots at LAFC’s goal and thankfully only scored one through Santiago Giménez. But they stemmed the tide to hold on for a 1-0 defeat.
Back in LA, Stanzione teed up Woolard to level up the tie on 19 minutes. Nothing else happened, despite Rasamu pushing his boys forward, until América hit the bar with a header in the final minute. So it finished 1-0 and went straight to the lottery of penalties. Both sides scored their first two but Mejía saved Danilo’s tame effort chipped straight at him. Clark took advantage then América’s centre-back and Yoshii both converted. América scored their fifth to heap the pressure on Fernández, who seemingly didn’t feel it as he tucked it calmly into the bottom right corner. LAFC were into the Champions League Final!
CONCACAF Champions League Final
This was exactly the reason that Robaato Rasamu made the switch to LAFC. To move to a big club with the opportunity of reaching a continental final. But who would he face in his maiden CONCACAF Champions League Final? Well, this was a little awkward…
Fans of LAFC and Pachuca descended on Atlanta for a huge clash as Rasamu faced off his against his former club just five months since swapping México for LA. Pachuca named six players Rasamu had never heard of, while he had no injury concerns so lined up:
The game started quietly but LAFC made the first move as a 16th-minute corner came back to Ordaz, he cut inside and drilled the ball low into the bottom corner. That was their only shot of a tame first half, so Rasamu fired the boys up but didn’t get the reaction he wanted as Pachuca fired a warning shot by hitting the post seven minutes after the break. The match continued to be dreadful and neither side created anything worthy of highlights. So Rasamu dropped the pace, toned down their mentality and, fairly shamefully against his former club, played for a 1-0. And it worked, as LAFC won 1-0 to become Champions of North America!
In terms of a spectacle, this was possibly the worst football match Rasamu had ever watched. But, as he relaxed in the relative calm of the manager’s office at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, he thought to himself “a win’s a win and it doesn’t matter how you do it.”
LAFC set a new record for the most goals scored in a CONCACAF Champions League season, as Ordaz’s strike usurped the 25 set by Tigres. Fernández, despite having a stinker against his former club, led the competition with 10 goals in eight games and won the Best Young Player award.
Five months into his role, Rasamu’s job with LAFC was already done and dusted. He’d achieved his aim of winning his second continental title on his Pentagon Pursuit, so he considered chiucking the towel in and looking for a new opportunity. However, an exciting event turned up that at least kept him in the position for a little while.
Join us on Monday to find out what’s next for Robaato Rasamu!
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