So … are we to concede this season’s spoils, and maybe next year’s, too, to Los Angeles FC? Is Olivier Giroud’s just the first of the superstar arrivals as the Western Conference’s standard-bearer hones, a la two years ago, as it takes aim for a third successive MLS Cup title-game run? Just how fearsome can Major League Soccer’s most frightening attack — sorry, Messi and Co. — really become?
 
The French striker’s initial appearance in the City of Angels, Thursday afternoon in an Intercontinental Downtown Los Angeles ballroom, left as many questions as answers, most involving the magnitude of his impact on the best team north of the Mexican border over the past two and two-thirds campaigns. The general assumption, at least in these parts: You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
 
The 37-year-old goalscorer, 38 at the end of September, follows in the footsteps of Carlos Vela, Giorgio Chiellini, Gareth Bale and his old pal Hugo Lloris, and if everything clicks as expected, LAFC is going to be something else. Giroud is certain to be more of a force than Bale, who was limited by ailments but played hero in the Angelenos’ 2022 MLS Cup triumph, and provide the kind of class up top the club has never before possessed.
 
And GM/co-president John Thorrington might not be done yet.
 
Talk of fellow superstar French attacker Antoine Griezmann’s move to LAFC is heating up — conversations are ongoing, with no certainty what they’ll produce — and here’s a nudge from the dais.
 
“I talked, obviously, with Antoine Griezmann, [my] national team [teammate],” Giroud proclaimed in front of a media gathering that included French consular staff, the forward’s wife and four children, and a few dozen supporters from LAFC’s 3252 conglomeration. “When he saw the news was I signed for LAFC, he was a bit jealous. I told him, ‘Don’t worry, we will meet each other in a few years.’
 
“I said a few years, but hopefully soon. I don’t know where [talks] are with the club, but I sent him straightaway a text when I seen that he was linked with the club, and he told me. ‘Let’s see.’ I know he loves U.S. basketball, baseball and soccer. One day or the other, he will come here, for sure.”
 
For now, it’s just Giroud, joining a growing French contingent — alongside former Les Bleus captain Lloris in the nets and deadly winger Denis Bouanga, the club’s most potent weapon since he showed up — and it’s a reminder of 2022, when LAFC stormed to the Supporters’ Shield/MLS Cup double after bringing in Chiellini, Bale and Bouanga.
 
How great can his impact be?
 
“We’ve been talking about that,” veteran fullback Ryan Hollingshead said ahead of Giroud’s landing, “and there’s no crystal ball to say what he’s going to do or not do.”
 
‘Going to make us better’
 
“Oh man, I don’t know,” mused center back Aaron Long. “Can I start fantasizing about what could happen? I think more than anything, I’m excited that Denis is going to be freed up. That’s the way I see it.
 
“Giroud is such a good player, and as a defender, I know this from playing against big-name strikers but also big-presence strikers: They take a lot of attention, for multiple reasons. One, because they’re so good. Another, because you always need to know where they are, especially towards the goal.”
 
Bouanga has attracted rabid attention since starting on his Golden Boot run last year, and he’s tied for second in MLS with 16 goals, one off Real Salt Lake striker Cristian Arango’s pace, while hitting a post or the crossbar nearly a dozen times. Matuesz Bogusz’s emergence as a scoring threat, after starting the season as a false 9 and splitting time on the flank and as an 8 since Kei Kamara’s ascension into the lineup, has taken some pressure off Bouanga, who leads the league in shots, shots on goal, carries into the box, and expected goals. Giroud’s presence, all 6-foot-3 of it, has to amplify that.
 
“There’s a lot of focus on Denis, and there should be, because he’s outstanding,” Long said. “But when you put Giroud up there, there’s going to be so much attention and so much thought on ‘where is he?’ I think it’s going to free up Denis, and he’s going to be an even better player. That’s what I’m really excited about.”
 
Bouanga, too.
 
“It’s going to be really easy to play with Giroud …,” he said in French. “[I like] how much he can keep the ball — he can keep the ball as he wants — and he can also turn around and score. He’s really, really strong. He knows when to wait, when to go. Either way the ball comes to him, he will get it [and do] something incredible.”
 
Hollingshead highlights his “clever and clean combination play.”
 
“Making good decisions, being predictable, and executing those plays on a consistent basis,” he said, “is going to help this team be balanced, is going to help this team get better, and then his physical attributes will help us on set pieces, will help us in all portions of the game. Having someone who understands that position at a world-class level is going to make us better.”
 
LAFC (14-5-5) already is in nice shape, second in the Western Conference (two points behind archrival LA Galaxy with two games in hand) and, given its depth and talent across the park, the likeliest side to face off against, unless the playoffs supply a real surprise, Inter Miami, FC Cincinnati or defending champion Columbus Crew in the Dec. 7 final.
 
This after a 10-game league unbeaten streak — 13 including U.S. Open Cup play — that kicked off in May with five successive shutouts and pushed LAFC from 11th four games into the campaign into the top spot before a 5-1 home debacle July 13 against Columbus ended the run.

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