LAFC’s trip to New York City FC has been pushed back, shifted and pushed back again, and now the teams are set to meet Saturday at Citi Field. The match was first slated for Yankee Stadium on May 6, then tentatively moved to Nov. 4 at Citi Field after LAFC advanced to the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal, before being re-rescheduled after the Yankees made the MLB postseason and the Mets did not.
That makes this weekend a moving target for fans and a useful one for LAFC, which has spent the week trying to build on Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Austin FC at BMO Stadium. Xavi Tamarit said afterward that the team was in a good moment and that he wanted to keep seeing the same attitude and same concepts on Saturday, when LAFC will try to take advantage of the chance to make it seven points in eight days.
There is a simple reason the match matters now. New York City FC is 10th in the Eastern Conference with an 8-12-9 record and 33 points, below the playoff line, and it lost 2-0 at Inter Miami last weekend. The club has gone 1-6-5 over its last 12 matches, so the trip to Citi Field arrives with as much urgency as frustration.
LAFC has its own problem to solve away from home. It is 3-6-6 outside BMO Stadium and has not won an MLS match away from L.A. since beating Minnesota in April. Tamarit took over after a 2-4-6 stretch and has already guided one of the club’s recent wins over Red Bull New York in September, but the real test is whether the turnaround holds when the setting changes again.
Wednesday’s victory offered a sign of what LAFC wants to be. Son Heung-min and Denis Bouanga combined for six goal contributions, and Tamarit said the performance was good enough to demand consistency. If LAFC can follow it with a result at Citi Field, it would fit into a run that has suddenly become about more than one rearranged fixture: a chance to turn one decent week into something sturdier before the schedule shifts again.
For New York City FC, the backdrop is familiar. The club has been using repurposed baseball stadiums in the Bronx and Flushing until Etihad Park opens in Queens next July, so the move from Yankee Stadium to Citi Field changes the date more than the routine. For LAFC, though, the venue swap comes with a sharper question attached: whether this version of the team can finally deliver outside L.A. after months of coming up short.
