LAFC aiming to conquer City of Angels with attractive brand of football

Tucked away in Koreatown near downtown Los Angeles is Niky's Sports, a football shop that has already bought into the hype of Los Angeles FC, the city's newest Major League Soccer club. Step through the doors and you'll see the team's logo painted in gold against the black interior wall, with the phrase, "Street by street, block by block, one by one" underneath.

There's no such homage for the LA Galaxy, despite the team's strong foothold in the league's history. It was the team that signed David Beckham, and won a league-best five MLS Cups. But a recent dip in form and a strong start for LAFC has made the city's newest team the latest darling story in MLS' ever-growing list of expansion successes.

Boasting star names like Carlos Vela and veterans like Benny Feilhaber and Laurent Ciman, LAFC has already picked up back-to-back wins over the Seattle Sounders and Real Salt Lake - the latter, a 5-1 drubbing, which was sure to delight iconic former U.S. national team boss Bob Bradley, now back on the MLS touchline.

Not that you could tell by looking at the man. Bradley's piercing gaze, gruff voice, and intense focus make him an intimidating figure, though his passion for football is obvious each time he speaks of it. His appointment was LAFC's first major coup, born of his all-too-sudden sacking from Swansea City. The Swans' loss proved this new club's gain, and Bradley is now hard at work building his second MLS expansion team.

But first, LAFC must win over the City of Angels - street by street, block by block, one by one. To do that, Bradley believes his side must play attractive, exciting football - and that's what he's working to deliver every day.

Substance is style at LAFC

LAFC's owners include cultural icons Will Ferrell, Mia Hamm, and Magic Johnson - but apart from Vela's signing, the team has been more methodical and less glamorous in its approach to team-building. Bradley's vision is the priority here, and what he's looking for from his players is actually quite specific.

"I'd like to be good with the ball and control games," Bradley told theScore about the style of play he's looking to implement. "When you win the ball and there's space behind the other team and you have the chance to go quickly, then that's certainly something you want to take advantage of.

"The idea that you can control games, that when you have the ball there's a good sense of how to keep it moving and look for advantages, those are absolutely things that I love to see in a team."

One of those pieces is Calum Mallace, formerly of the Montreal Impact and Sounders. The 28-year-old midfielder is one of the 22 players who now call LAFC home, and shared Bradley's expectations for his team.

"I know different places around the world and also even teams in the MLS can be ugly at times - a lot of long balls and things like that," Mallace told theScore. "Bob is old school. He wants to play football."

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He added: "They've hand-picked each player to come in and be a part of this expansion team, and they brought in guys who want to keep the ball, who want to play. We talk about building out of the back - that's the kind of team we're going to be. Try and avoid long balls at all costs."

Mallace explains that LAFC is working to play in a standard 4-3-3 formation, with an emphasis on building from the backline and consistently keeping the ball on the ground. To that end, LAFC's defensive ranks include plenty of experience in Ciman, Steven Beitashour, Dejan Jakovic, Walker Zimmerman, and Jordan Harvey, assembled by Bradley's design.

"You have a picture of how to build a whole team and in different situations, timing of players and availability determine which pieces get put in place first," Bradley said, when asked about the priority placed on building a solid backline.

"It's not that we ever set out to say, 'let's build from the back' but having said that, if you want to play good football, you have to have good defenders, you have to have defenders that you think can pass. So, we tried to look for certain kinds of players in all parts of the field and used that as a starting point."

Finding inspiration

In 1998, Bradley, then a newcomer to the touchline, was charged with building the Chicago Fire. He exceeded expectations, guiding the fledgling franchise to MLS Cup glory, a feat that hasn't been repeated by an expansion side since.

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Not to say that some teams haven't come close - Seattle was - and remains - a contender in the postseason, while Atlanta United took MLS by storm in 2017 before losing to Columbus Crew SC on penalties in the playoffs.

Bradley draws inspiration from both of those experiences, as well as crediting the likes of Seattle, Atlanta, Toronto FC, and New York City FC for their quality, admitting, "no matter how you do things, when you see examples of good work, you look closely to see if there's anything there you can take advantage of."

But his starting point, as he explains, is to "always to try and make a good team."

"When we started out in Chicago, I don't think on Day 1 we were thinking about winning MLS Cup," Bradley said. "But at some point as we got started, we realized we had a good team. When we had a good team, we felt like we were a team that could win everything. It's a step-by-step process."

Outside of MLS, Bradley can certainly draw on his own personal experiences, having managed teams like Norwegian outfit Stabaek, French side Le Havre, and the Egyptian national team. But he isn't limiting his exposure, either.

"I appreciate good football," Bradley said. "You know, Barcelona has set a standard, Bayern Munich's great, I mean, I could go on and on and on. Manchester City this year has been fantastic to watch. So you try to have ideas of how football can come together, then you try to find players who you think can be challenged in the right ways, you go on the training field every day with some way of working and some way of sort of opening up their minds to new ideas, and you try to build toward a picture of good football every day.

"Every time you watch Barcelona, you're pretty excited. I mean, how could you not be excited when you see those players and the kind of football they play? But there's many other examples as well. You've got take all of those ideas and then figure out what it's going to look like for you."

The daily grind

"Extremely vocal" and "very intense." That's how Mallace described Bradley, a man who isn't afraid to stop training sessions and fix issues with just one or two players. Mallace says it's a coaching style that he and his teammates appreciate.

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Mallace says Bradley's work starts in the video room, where the team watches "a lot of clips on Barcelona" - the team that LAFC's style is "trying to base off" - but added that those video sessions are then immediately explored on-field. It's a key differentiation between Bradley and other coaches Mallace has worked with, who he explained, "use the preseason as a fitness gauge."

"His philosophy is, you work hard in training, the way that they've set up each session, you're going to get fit doing it," Mallace said of Bradley's methods. "That way, we can concentrate more on the style of play we want to do, which is, as I said, keep the ball and play attractive football."

Of course, Bradley's work is just beginning. LAFC has only existed as an active football club for a few short months, and comparisons will surely be drawn with the Galaxy - as well as the defunct Chivas USA - throughout the season. As such, Bradley and his team have much to prove - and improve upon.

In that regard, the 60-year-old tactician has already identified areas of strength and weakness within his ranks.

"As we've gone through preseason we've done a good job of creating chances. Some of our attacking actions are, for me, quite good. We haven't always finished off chances as well as I would like but I still think that some of the attacking actions are going in the right directions. I think in the midfield, at times our decision-making and our sense that it's not time to go forward, so can we connect some passes until the next advantage comes, control the rhythm of the game, that is an area where I think we still have to get better."

For Bradley, this is just a part of the job. Mallace, however, sees it as a rare opportunity to learn, and he's treating it as such.

"What he does well is, because he has all those experiences from different places, he's bringing what he's learned from the past, whether it's a positive or negative experience, and he's applying it to our team now. Just to be around that on a daily basis, as a young player or even an experienced player, you're going to learn from this man.

"It's an honor to work with him every day."