Los Angeles II

The players who turn up at Titan Stadium on a Fullerton university campus are, for the most part, on their way somewhere else. The team was set up in August 2022 as the reserve side of Los Angeles FC, and it exists to move footballers from the academy into a first-team dressing room a few freeway exits away.

There are no separate founders to name. The club belongs to LAFC, and LAFC belongs to a long ownership list — Peter Guber and Larry Berg among the principals, with Magic Johnson and Mia Hamm attached to the group. Nobody signs for LAFC2 because of that list, but it explains why a four-year-old reserve team plays in front of a 10,000-capacity ground and wears the same black and gold as the senior side.

The ground is borrowed. Titan Stadium sits on the campus of the state university in Fullerton, which puts the reserve team roughly 30 miles from the parent club's home and gives it a crowd that is mostly local rather than inherited. On some nights the side has turned out in army green instead of the club colours.

Four seasons in MLS Next Pro have produced no trophy, and the honours column stays empty. The competition was built to give teenagers competitive minutes at a level above the academy and below the first team, and the record that matters is how many of them make the step up.

The immediate task is the one it has had since the first fixture: keep the youngest players in the building playing, and get them ready for the call across town.