Saturday in Seattle. It’s late in the second half, and Los Angeles FC is desperate to save face.
The 2022 MLS Cup winner is staring down its first defeat of the new season, trailing 4-1 to the Sounders. The visitors have been thoroughly dissected by one of their biggest competitive rivals, and Seattle is visibly relishing this win as the game nears its conclusion.
In the 90th minute, LAFC quickly splits two lines with a single pass to set up a short-field transition moment — ideal for a team that’s so reliant on fast breaks. Ryan Hollingshead collects the ball in stride along the right wing, curling a cross into the path of Olivier Giroud, France’s all-time leading scorer, veteran of 162 goals in the English Premier League, Serie A and Ligue 1, plus another 40 in the Champions League and Europa League.
Giroud has a couple of yards between him and his nearest opponent and the ball entering the no-man’s-land between Seattle’s defense and goalkeeper. But the ball rolls a yard ahead of Giroud, goalkeeper Andrew Thomas diving in anticipation despite the forward not even making a move to connect with the cross. The camera catches Hollingshead burying his face in his hands, looking back at his striker as he ventures toward his defensive post. As the replays roll, match analyst Taylor Twellman — who earned 30 caps for the United States and won two MLS Golden Boots — fights a striker’s instincts to criticize their service.
“Everything about this from LAFC is spot-on,” Twellman said. “I have a difficult one believing that’s too far (of a pass) from Hollingshead. If I’m a 9, I’m literally on my horse doing everything I can knowing the only spot that ball can be had is in between the goalkeeper and the penalty spot. If it’s hit a little softer (for Giroud), sure — but if it’s hit softer, the defender gets it.”
Minutes later, Los Angeles finds consolation. Young winger David Martínez follows a takeaway at midfield with a mazing run through Seattle’s defense and a precise finish across his body. Throughout the sequence, Giroud is a furlong behind the Venezuelan, unable to offer help for a give-and-go sequence or to be in place for a follow-up shot if Martínez’s effort is saved. As he advances, multiple Sounders pass him in a foot race to contain the dribbler.
As Martínez peels off to celebrate, Giroud immediately turns toward the center circle, giving one lonely clap balancing acknowledgment with self-frustration.
David Martínez takes it the distance after winning the ball at midfield 🇻🇪
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— lafcmirror.bsky.social (@lafcmirror.bsky.social) March 8, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Ultimately, the game ended 5-2, an early statement from Seattle as it cements front-runner status. It’s also the latest 90 minutes of a 965-minute goalless drought for Giroud — far from what was expected when he left Milan last summer, after prior stints with Montpelier, Arsenal and Chelsea.
Olivier Giroud in more productive times with France colleague Antoine Greizmann. (Frank Fife / Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)
When MLS’ detractors say it’s a “retirement league,” they often cite that top strikers deep into their 30s can score with considerable dependability.
Check the league’s year-end goal-scoring hierarchy, and you’ll find some relative golden oldies. 2015 saw fine returns from Didier Drogba (then 37) and Robbie Keane (35). Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored an audacious brace when he debuted in 2018 as a bright-eyed 36-year-old. In 2024, Christian Benteke (33) won MLS’ Golden Boot, and Luis Suarez (37) and Lionel Messi (37) were tied as runners-up.
The reasons these distinguished gentlemen continue to get looks are pretty straightforward. Even in a league as physical as MLS, having a crafty poacher or unstoppable aerial threat can be enough to exploit MLS’ comparatively poor standard of defending. Even if Ibrahimovic could no longer contend with Premier League defenses in 2018, he had ample guile and technique to threaten any MLS backline.
The designated player rule is a considerable enabler of this trend, allowing teams to meet famous forwards’ high wage demands. The league’s three-DP limit implicitly encourages teams to tailor their tactics and squad build to cater to their headliners, which can allow players such as Benteke to thrive in systems that are ideal for their skills.
As this genre of signing goes, few seemed more likely to be a fruitful partnership than when Los Angeles FC acquired Giroud last summer. This was a club that had already benefited greatly from being the final destination of Gareth Bale’s and Giorgio Chiellini’s storied careers, as both came through during the club’s 2022 title run. Giroud arrived while still starting regularly at Europe’s highest level, leading AC Milan’s line for 2,372 minutes in the 2023-24 Serie A season. His 15 goals were further evidence of his ageless quality, averaging 0.57 goals per 90 minutes at age 37.
Giroud made a swift first impression in the 2024 Leagues Cup, a tournament played between teams from MLS and Liga MX that doesn’t have an impact on the league standings. His first goal for his new team came in that tournament’s final against the Columbus Crew. Just like in MLS Cup 2023, however, LAFC lost to the Crew but hoped Giroud would build off of that shift to catalyze another run through the MLS postseason.
Olivier Giroud celebrating LAFC’s US Open Cup triumph in 2024. (Michael Owens / USSF / Getty Images for USSF)
He has scored just once since that match in August, bagging the opening goal in LAFC’s triumphant U.S. Open Cup final against Sporting Kansas City. Across the regular season and postseason, Giroud has been downright ineffective in MLS play. Since the start of 2019, no player has logged more goal-less minutes while playing as a striker in MLS action than Giroud (965). His two closest challengers in this undesirable category clocked in with 760 (Robbie Robinson) and 752 (Andrew Wooten) goal-free minutes up top.
At 38, Giroud is a poor match for Steve Cherundolo’s system. LAFC has generated 429 direct attacks in just over three seasons under Cherundolo; no other team in the league has more than 351, and the average team (omitting 2023 expansion side St. Louis City SC and 2025 newcomer San Diego FC) has made 273.5 in just over three seasons.
The justification for this approach is clear: left winger Denis Bouanga is one of the best transition operators in recent MLS history, an unstoppable force when sprinting toward goal. The approach has resulted in one MLS Cup title, another trip to the final, the 2022 Supporters’ Shield and the 2024 U.S. Open Cup. It has not, however, helped the French veteran score at his customary rate.
To illustrate the mismatch, let’s look at how Giroud got on the ball in Serie A.
Considering only his attacking touches, it’s clear Giroud predominantly got on the ball in quintessential center forward territory. Occasionally, he would drop deep to help in build-up, serving as a hold-up man as Milan progressed upfield in possession. Milan averaged 3.1 direct attacks per game across those three seasons, more than half a break less than LAFC’s 3.7 in three-plus seasons under Cherundolo.
Even taking one additional fast break per 90 asks a lot of a 38-year-old striker who was never before known for breakneck pace. Even when Giroud does his customary hold-up work, the rate at which LAFC advances upfield often leaves him trailing behind the ensuing sequence as seen above during Martínez’s scamper.
The result is clear to see in his underlying numbers. Across 6,420 Serie A minutes with Milan, 48.2% of Giroud’s touches came in the attacking third, and 17.6% were made in the opponent’s box. Through his first 965 minutes with LAFC, his attacking third share is down to 36%, and he’s taking just 11.4% of his touches in the box. After he’s taken 44% of his touches in the midfield third with Milan, that rate has bloated to 52.6% since he came stateside.
His shift Saturday against the Sounders saw very little involvement in the final third, with an average position nestled at the center circle’s heart.
Make sure to check the arrow indicating field direction — Giroud took three touches in his own team’s box, but just one in Seattle’s. The rest were almost entirely logged in the midfield third.
Giroud is nearing 1,000 goal-less minutes in MLS, leaving Cherundolo with a stylistic dilemma. If he recalibrates his team to slow its upfield tempo and better involve Giroud, it would directly play against Bouanga’s considerable strengths on the break. Curating an approach that enables both forwards to thrive is a tricky task but one he’ll have to solve throughout the season to remain among MLS’ top tier.
Nevertheless, there is unique pressure on Giroud to perform compared with what accompanied Bale and Chiellini, too. Giroud uses a valuable DP slot, one of only three LAFC can use to sign players to unlimited salaries, whereas Bale and Chiellini were signed on wages below the DP threshold. That implies an expectation that Giroud should be, if not one of the three most impactful players on the team, certainly far more decisive than he has been.
Of course, another way Giroud can help his team is in their recruitment of another French star. Antoine Griezmann has been linked to an MLS move for half a decade, and LAFC is an obvious destination for the forward. Griezmann would arrive in a truly global city teeming with American sports teams and media or commercial opportunities. During his introductory news conference, Giroud hardly left a Hollywood reunion up for speculation.
“One day for sure he will come,” Giroud said in August 2024.”It would be amazing, crazy, to have him also in the team with Hugo (Lloris) after what we achieved for France. Playing in the same team would be crazy. I can’t imagine.”
In time, perhaps LAFC will indeed be a Les Bleus-led alternative to Inter Miami’s predilection for former FC Barcelona players. In the meantime, however, Giroud needs to be doing more to make an impact on the scoreline. Another matchup with the Crew in the Concacaf Champions Cup — 8:30 p.m. ET Tuesday — looms and could help break his all-competitions slump.
As it stands, however, Giroud has hardly provided good value across his first near-thousand MLS minutes. It’s a first impression that few, if any, could have expected.
(Top photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
