LAFC look ahead after "disappointing" Club World Cup elimination | OneFootball

By Ben Wright

"All around disappointing. I can answer both your questions in one word."

LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo was succinct when asked to sum up their FIFA Club World Cup campaign and 1-0 elimination loss to Tunisian side ES Tunis on Friday night at Nashville's GEODIS Park.

"I just think our performance, individually but as a collective on top of that, just wasn't good enough in the second half to win a game at the Club World Cup," Cherundolo said. "The level is very high. Poor halves are going to be punished, and that's what happened."

Second-half struggles

After a dominant first half in Friday's Group D showdown, the Black & Gold struggled to match Tunis's energy in the second.

Youcef Belaïli's 70th-minute strike stood as the game-winner, after Denis Bouanga had a penalty kick saved deep into second-half stoppage time to seal a group-stage exit.

"Today for sure we didn't show our level," said defender Sergi Palencia, who played the full 90 minutes in LAFC's matches against Chelsea and ES Tunis.

"... I think it's good to learn from," he added. "When you play these big competition games against these big clubs, everything counts. If you disconnect one second, they punish you... We have to take this learning and put it into MLS and into [Concacaf Champions Cup]. So it's a good learning for us, for the team, and for everyone."

While the loss and exit from the tournament certainly stings, it came on the heels of a historic Chelsea matchup, which saw LAFC go toe-to-toe with a Premier League giant for lengthy stretches.

The Black & Gold play their group-stage finale on Tuesday, when they take on Brazilian power Flamengo at Camping World Stadium in Orlando (9 pm ET | DAZN.com).

"Overall, I think it's been a great experience for us," Cherundolo said. "I would love to see us in more moments like this and more games like this when we're pushed to our limits, because this is how individuals grow and teams grow. And so it's great for us as a team.

"We need to clean things up a little bit and so we can qualify again for this tournament."