Midfielder Eduard Atuesta officially rejoined the Los Angeles Football Club on Thursday, after a transfer in 2021 sent him to Brazilian powerhouse SE Palmeiras, with which the 26-year-old Colombian claimed repeat championships among a slew of trophies.

“We are thrilled to welcome Eduard back to LAFC, a player our supporters love, and a top midfielder in our league,” LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington said in a statement announcing the loan through 2024, which includes a club option to purchase. “We are well aware of the value Eduard brings to LAFC on the pitch, and we are confident that his quality and added experience will contribute to our success moving forward.”

Making his MLS debut during the first “El Trafico” rivalry game against the Galaxy, Atuesta became a vital part of the LAFC midfield beginning early in the club’s expansion year.

Originally acquired using targeted allocation money on Feb. 27, 2018, from Colombia’s Independiente Medellin, Atuesta was honored as an MLS 22 Under 22 performer following his initial season in the U.S. He was named to the league’s Best XI after LAFC captured its first Supporters’ Shield in 2019 and was selected as a 2021 MLS All-Star.

“I’m very happy to be home again,” Atuesta, who will occupy an international roster slot, said in a video posted on social media by LAFC. “Happy knowing I’ll see you all soon. To share experiences with you all again. I’m really happy. See you all soon.”

The box-to-box midfielder played 60 games for Palmeiras in the past two years, starting 18 times while registering a pair of goals across all competitions, including the Copa Libertadores and 2021 FIFA Club World Cup.

Improving on international call-ups to Colombia’s U20 and U23 programs during his previous stint in Black & Gold, Atuesta earned two caps with the senior national team in 2022.

Departing to Palmeiras for a reported fee of $4 million, Atuesta left as one of LAFC’s all-time statistical leaders, ranking second in assists (23), and third in games played (96), starts (84), minutes played (7,593) and shots (137).

Upon his homecoming as the first player to return to LAFC, “El Profe,” as Atuesta is fondly called by teammates and supporters, now stands fifth in appearances, starts, minutes and sixth in shots. He remains No. 2 among assist leaders (tied with Latif Blessing), behind Carlos Vela’s 58.

Interim coach Twila Kilgore has called in a 23-player roster, which includes 21 players from the USWNT’s December camp.

Also, Mallory Swanson, who finished last season as the team’s leading goal scorer, despite suffering a left knee injury in April, will join as a training player.

Southern California natives Savannah DeMelo (Racing Louisville FC) and Angel City FC’s Gisele Thompson will also join the camp as training players.

Mia Fishel (UCLA, San Diego), Jenna Nighswonger (Huntington Beach), Trinity Rodman (Laguna Niguel) and Abby Dahlkemper (UCLA) are other Southern California products called into camp.

Missing are the familiar names like Alex Morgan and Becky Sauerbrunn, as well as Kristie Mewis, Andi Sullivan, Ashley Sanchez, Kelley O’Hara and Sofia Huerta, who all made the FIFA World Cup team.

Alyssa Thompson is also missing, due to a back injury, according to Kilgore.

“She’s got a minor back injury right now,” Kilgore said. “She’s well on her course but isn’t quite into full training yet and just wasn’t quite ready for this and out of an abundance of care and caution, she was not able to come in.”

The USWNT will play all three of its group stage games at Dignity Health Sports Park, starting Feb. 20 against either Guyana or the Dominican Republic. Three days later, the Americans will face Argentina and then Mexico, on Feb. 26.

All games will start at 7:15 p.m.

The top two finishers in each of the three groups, along with the two best third-place teams, will advance to the knockout stage. The quarterfinals will be played March 2 and 3 at BMO Stadium and the semifinals and final will be March 6 and 10 at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego.

This tournament kicks off an important 2024, with the Olympics on the horizon and soon, new coach Emma Hayes taking over full time.

“Things that happen in the Gold Cup will matter in terms of the future and everything that is happening outside of the Gold Cup will matter in the future,” Kilgore said. “We recognize there are multiple players that aren’t going to be in the environment that we are still looking at, that are still very much in the mix.”

USWNT CONCACAF W GOLD CUP ROSTER

GOALKEEPERS: Jane Campbell (Houston Dash), Casey Murphy (North Carolina Courage), Alyssa Naeher (Chicago Red Stars)

DEFENDERS: Alana Cook (Seattle Reign FC), Abby Dahlkemper (San Diego Wave FC), Crystal Dunn (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Tierna Davidson (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Emily Fox (Arsenal FC, ENG), Naomi Girma (San Diego Wave FC), Casey Krueger (Washington Spirit), Jenna Nighswonger (NY/NJ Gotham FC)

MIDFIELDERS: Korbin Albert (Paris Saint-Germain, FRA), Sam Coffey (Portland Thorns FC), Lindsey Horan (Olympique Lyon, FRA), Rose Lavelle (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns FC), Emily Sonnett (NJ/NY Gotham FC)

FORWARDS: Mia Fishel (Chelsea FC, ENG), Midge Purce (NJ/NY Gotham FC), Trinity Rodman (Washington Spirit), Jaedyn Shaw (San Diego Wave FC), Sophia Smith (Portland Thorns FC), Lynn Williams (NJ/NY Gotham FC)

In the months leading up to Sunday’s announcement, reports had SoFi Stadium either being passed over by FIFA or limited in the number of games the stadium would host.

“There was a lot of chatter around the field size, which all of it was unfounded,” Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff said Monday. “Nearly every NFL stadium that exists in this tournament is undergoing some kind of renovation for FIFA to accommodate their field size, which is larger than a friendly match that you would host, for Copa America or Gold Cup, which we’ve hosted successfully.

“I think a lot of that was driven by the competition amongst cities to try to knock stadiums down. When you have a stadium as attractive as SoFi Stadium and people competing for events, I think that was driven by other cities, than it was the reality of FIFA.”

SoFi Stadium will host five group stage games, including two for the U.S. team. The stadium will also host two games in the Round of 32 and one quarterfinal game.

SoFi’s renovations are underway. Otto Benedict, Senior Vice President of Facility and Campus Operations for SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, said that construction began Sunday night.

“SoFi Stadium was designed to host a FIFA regulation pitch size, so with our system we have in place now, we will fit a 65-meter (x 105-meter) pitch into our stadium,” he said. “In conversations with FIFA and their needs around auxiliary space for the field, we’re going to expand that and modify our seating system to include a couple more rows in each corner so that we can get to the 73-plus meter distance that FIFA has requested.”

The renovations will create more space to fit the larger field required by FIFA. The first phase, according to the Associated Press, is “replacing concrete in the corners of the lower bowl with bleacher risers that can be rolled back during soccer matches.”

“We’re taking a 90-day sprint for the first phase of construction,” Benedict said. “Then we’ll go back to our normal configuration and go through our concert season and special events this summer and the NFL season.

“Then in ’25, we’ll go back to do some different work there, build out our field for the first time, we’ll have a natural grass field that’s going to be designed to FIFA’s specifics, do some events and testing around that and then we’ll jump into ’26, which will be here before we know it.”

Benedict said there will be an opportunity to add in temporary seating if needed for the World Cup. Also during the tournament, SoFi will adopt the new name “Los Angeles Stadium” due to FIFA’s regulations that prohibit sponsors from representing venues.

SoFi Stadium has hosted several soccer events recently, with each drawing more than 70,000.

“It’s been a fun process, it’s been a long process,” said former Galaxy president Chris Klein, who is also co-chair of the L.A. host committee. “Almost seven years to get to this point and we have another 2½ to go. At the outset, we talked about hosting some of the biggest games in the 2026 World Cup and our focus was on the opener for the United States and hosting our men’s national team to open the World Cup.

“We obviously know the final is a big deal as well, but to be able to welcome the world and our country at such an important time for soccer in the United States and to be able to build events around the opening, we’re extremely excited and happy with how things rolled out yesterday (Sunday). The clock starts now to kick off the World Cup in the United States.”

SoFi will also host games in the Copa America this summer, serving as another test for what things might look like for the World Cup.

“It’s been a long, long, bumpy, twisting, winding road to this point,” said LAFC co-president and L.A. committee co-chair Larry Freedman. “When I think about growing up at what might have been the dawn of global football in the U.S. when the North American Soccer League was around and seeing the game grow and never quite catch on at the highest level and I think about Chris (Klein) and the story he tells playing on various levels of our national teams and seeing this sport grow and grow in this region.

“It started with the L.A. Galaxy and all of their rich and great history and then you get LAFC and now Angel City Football Club on the women’s side and you feel how important the game is in this market and this region and to connect it now with the biggest tournament in all of sports, it’s pretty exciting.”

The USMNT will play open its World Cup play June 12 in the Inglewood stadium, home of the Rams and Chargers of the NFL, and also their third group game, June 25. The USMNT’s second group game will be in Seattle, June 19.

The locations and dates for the next men’s World Cup were announced Sunday. The tournament will held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. SoFi will host a total of eight games.

“This (announcement) brings it to life and makes it exciting,” USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter said. “We would have been happy at any of the venues because we know that home support is going to be incredible in this World Cup.

“Having said that, we know where we’re at and now we can start planning, which is a big part of it. We know from the last World Cup (2022) how important it is to get the environment right. Preparation will begin tomorrow (Monday) and we look forward to an amazing World Cup.”

Aside from the two USMNT group stage games, SoFi will host three other group stage games (June 15, 18, 21), two games in the Round of 32 (June 28, July 2) and one quarterfinal (July 10).

“That’s why you invest that much in a state-of-the-art stadium like that and to get to host eight games, big games, games that will have a huge impact on the World Cup,” Berhalter said. “L.A. has a melting pot of cultures, a bunch of different people coming together, L.A. has everything, the beaches, the weather, it’s a great location to watch soccer and I’m sure with the 2026 World Cup, it’s going to be a great venue.”

SoFi Stadium has hosted several big soccer events recently, drawing more than 70,000 fans for the Leagues Cup Showcase doubleheader in 2022 (Galaxy vs. Chivas, LAFC vs. Club America), the CONCACAF Gold Cup final in 2023 between Mexico and Panama and a friendly between Arsenal and Barcelona, also in 2023.

Later this summer, the stadium will host games in the CONMEBOL Copa America.

There were reports that FIFA was looking to move on from SoFi Stadium due to the stadium’s size. FIFA guidelines call for stadiums to have a capacity of at least 80,000 and the field is narrower than FIFA guidelines.

All of that appears to be in the past as a stadium press release stated that the stadium is scheduled to begin “to undergo modifications” starting this week.

SoFi Stadium has hosted WrestleMania 39 and several concerts by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Metallica and Beyonce.

This will be the first World Cup featuring 48 teams, instead of the 32-team format that has been in use since 1988. The teams will be in 12 four-team groups.

The tournament will also see an increase in total games from 64 to 104.

The opening date for the tournament is June 11 with Mexico hosting at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

“We’re so happy being here in Azteca,” Mexican national team coach Jaime Lozano told the FS1 broadcast. “Being here with the fans will be a special day in my life and for the national team.

Canada’s national team will kick off play June 12 in Toronto.

Mexico will play its group stage games in Mexico and Canada will play in Toronto and Vancouver. In all, there will be 13 games played in Mexico and 13 in Canada.

“Toronto is a great city, with a great soccer tradition,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said. “Canada will do fantastic in this World Cup.”

The third-place game will be played in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium.

The semifinals will be played at AT&T Stadium (Dallas) and Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta).

The last time that a men’s World Cup was hosted in the U.S. was in 1994. The 1999 and 2003 Women’s World Cups were hosted in the U.S.

This is the first time that Canada will host and the third time for Mexico (1970, 1986). Canada hosted the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

Lepley was selected in the third round by the Galaxy in the January MLS Draft. He has yet to sign an MLS contract, but with the work he’s putting in, it might not be long before that happens.

With the Galaxy down numbers in the midfield, without Gaston Brugman, Riqui Puig and Daniel Aguirre, Lepley stepped out onto the field Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park in the starting lineup for the preseason game against St. Louis City SC.

“I’m taking it day-by-day, game-by game,” Lepley said following the 2-1 loss. “Today when I stepped out in the stadium, it was like the little kid inside of me just getting to realize part of his dream.

“Playing in the stadium was a really cool experience for me.”

Lepley made his preseason debut in last week’s closed-door scrimmage against San Jose.

“He has some game experience, some life experiences,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said of Lepley. “You see that maturity inside of the way he plays.”

Lepley took a redshirt his first year at UCLA and played three. He had one year remaining, but decided to make the jump.

“I was really close to getting my degree, but I felt like for me, I was ready to take a next step in my career and step into a different environment,” he said. “I felt like at the end of the day, there’s no better time for me to try and make this step. As much as I love UCLA, I love the school to death, I feel like they’ve given me every opportunity to be successful and I carry them with me every day.”

Lepley had to wait until the third round to hear his name called, but he’s not going to let that define his experience.

“I think draft day for everybody is a special day,” he said. “I don’t really think it matters when you get picked, just to see your name, that’s just made me so happy. Obviously as rounds go by, you’re curious as to where you think you might land, but for me, I was just trying to take it all in and seeing my friends get drafted as well, made me just as happy as seeing my name get called.”

Galaxy drops game to St. Louis

In their only preseason game at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Galaxy fell 2-1 in front of 12,553. Diego Fagundez scored for the Galaxy. St. Louis scored the winning goal late in the second half, after the Galaxy had subbed on several of their young Academy players.

“We got a lot of guys opportunities to feel the intensity of what an MLS game looks like,” Vanney said. “I think we had four or five Academy kids out there in the second half, three of which are under 17 (age) players that got to play and feel what this is about. Real good opportunity as preseason is to expose players to things they won’t see necessarily in the regular season and you get to get a sense of where they’re at.”

The Galaxy’s next four games will be played in Indio at the Coachella Valley Invitational. The next home game will be the regular season opener Feb. 25 against Inter Miami CF and Lionel Messi.

As an expansion club, Angel City narrowly missed the NWSL playoffs. Last season, thanks to a second-half rally under then-interim coach Becki Tweed, Angel City qualified for the playoffs, finishing fifth in what was then a 12-team league (expanded to 14 this season).

“This league is competitive,” Angel City defender and captain Ali Riley said. “Every team is wondering, ‘How are we going to get that edge? How are we going to improve on the seasons we’ve had?

“I just think, Becki having a full season, the games we have lined up for the preseason … this league is about consistency, honestly. Because this team is so competitive, it feels like on any given day and any team can win and we want to prove that on any given day, we’re going to win.

“This could be a really special team. Becki has set a really clear standard with her communication about what our standards are and everyone is totally on board.”

Angel City’s roster has changed in recent weeks, with the arrival of midfielder Raquel “Rocky” Rodriguez in a trade with the Portland Thorns and Messiah Bright in a trade with the Orlando Pride.

Tweed, who led the club to the second-half turnaround after taking over when the team fired Freya Coombe, had the interim tag officially removed during the offseason.

Some areas of focus for the preseason are possession and goals.

“When I look back at last season and especially the second half, we really got into a style of play that became really gritty and I think obviously, we want to keep that grip, but we want to now grow from that identity and try to keep the ball a little bit more,” Tweed said. “A lot of the games are really close, that’s the NWSL, but how can we put ourselves in a position where we can dominate a game from start to end and it’s not about the last 5-10 minutes purely being about grit, those things are going to really important for us to build on.”

The Angel City offensive attack could be special with the addition of Bright to go along with the likes of Alyssa Thompson, Sydney Leroux, Jun Endo, Claire Emslie and the newly acquired Rodriguez.

“Rocky’s experience and ability speaks for itself,” Tweed said. “That 10 that can get faced up and play forward, she’s incredibly technical, good on the ball, sees the game, understands the game. And then adding Messiah, bright, hungry, wants to score goals, has really big ambitions, really coachable, all the things that you want to bring into an environment.

“We have some really good new additions that can offer us a more flexible style of play so we can build that identity a bit further. We’re only about 10 days, so we still have a lot of work to do, but I think in terms of what we’re trying to do, the new additions have been really great.”

The Galaxy will host St. Louis City SC on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Dignity Health Sports Park in a preseason exhibition match.

Galaxy coach Greg Vanney liked what he saw in the closed-door scrimmage.

“The first half, I was really pleased with our performance,” Vanney said. “They didn’t have a shot on goal, we did a great job protecting our box, we won a lot of balls in the attacking half of the field. We’ve been talking about our collective movement defensively, staying connected as a group, learning how to press together as a group, also learning how to sit in a mid-block. I thought we were very sound in that.

“Our shape was good, our awareness of each was good and I thought the ball moved pretty quickly. I think we could have scored three goals, we had three really good chances, in which we scored one.”

Miguel Berry scored the Galaxy’s goal.

“We try to keep building off of that against a very different opponent,” Vanney said. “San Jose does like to have the ball, whereas St. Louis is really trying to organize the press and transition, that’s their game and they’re really hard to break down. We’re going to have to be clean with the ball and make sure we don’t play into the traps they’re going to be setting for us, but also we’re sticking to the theme of being really good defensively and making sure we’re always connected.”

Tucker Lepley impressing

The Galaxy recently drafted Tucker Lepley in the third round out of UCLA.

He played three seasons at UCLA and also had a year of USL experience with Sporting Kansas City II and utilized a redshirt year at UCLA.

“He’s been great,” Vanney said. “He’s super-competitive, clean technically and he does understand the things we’re asking him to do within the position.

“He has a high level of awareness on the field and, based off of our style and what we’re asking of him and his role, he’s very comfortable with that.”

With the Galaxy currently down healthy bodies (Daniel Aguirre, Gaston Brugman and Riqui Puig) in the midfield, Lepley is taking advantage of the time.

“He’s found a comfort zone pretty quickly,” Vanney said. “He’s not a fish out of water, which is good scouting by our guys to recognize a player you get in the third round who can step in and be a very active part of things right away and tribute to him and his development and his process. He’s been a nice – I don’t want to say surprise because we always felt he was a good player at UCLA – but he’s been a nice addition.”

Road trip on tap

After Saturday’s game, the Galaxy will spend the next two weeks in Indio for the Coachella Valley Invitational.

The Galaxy will play four games against Charlotte FC (Wednesday, 11 a.m.), Austin FC (Feb. 11, 10 a.m.), New York City FC (Feb. 14, noon) and the New York Red Bulls (Feb. 17, 10 a.m.).

All games will be available via live stream at lagalaxy.com. Tickets go on sale Wednesday.

On Thursday, LAFC welcomed perhaps its most intriguing prospect yet: 17-year-old David Martinez.

The Venezuelan forward, who was closely linked to Dutch powerhouse Ajax, joins LAFC through 2027, with a club option for one more year, as part of Major League Soccer’s U22 initiative.

“David is one of the most sought-after young players in South America with an impressive amount of experience despite his age,” LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington said in a release announcing the news. “We are incredibly excited about David’s potential and his future at LAFC.”

The U22 designation encourages MLS teams to develop and spend on talent by freeing up the salary budget for three players aged 22 years or younger.

The signing of Mexican fullback Omar Campos, a direct replacement for Palacios at left back, was also announced Tuesday as part of the U22 initiative.

The fee for Martinez, who made his senior team debut with Monagas SC of Venezuela’s first division at the age of 16, approached $3.5 million, according to The Athletic.

Over the past two years, Martinez stood out among prospects around the world who were born in 2006.

For Monagas, Martinez made 38 appearances, including 24 starts, scoring six goals and assisting on five more in all competitions, including a handful of matches in the Copa Libertadores tournament.

He also captained Venezuela’s U-17 side to its first World Cup qualification in a decade. He played for the U-20s at the age of 16. And he debuted with the men’s national team in June in an exhibition match against Guatemala.

A gifted dribbler, facilitator and finisher, the book on Martinez has him playing on the wing or as an attacking midfielder.

He turns 18 on Feb. 7.

Martinez joins Campos and Uruguayan forward Cristian Olivera, giving LAFC a trio of U22 players to watch heading into 2024.

(Croatian forward Stipe Biuk had signed as a U22 prior to last season, but he won’t count against the current roster following a recent loan to Real Valladolid of Spain’s second division.)

Having three U22s means LAFC is hemmed in as to what it can do with a pair of available Designated Player positions. Talks with Carlos Vela, the club’s longtime captain and first designated player signing, are ongoing. Should the two sides come to terms, the LAFC could still add a Young DP.

The literal fruit of that labor officially joined LAFC on Wednesday, when Tomás Ángel, the 20-year-old son of retired Colombian striker Juan Pablo Ángel, agreed to a deal with the Black & Gold through 2026, including a club option for 2027.

Seven years after Juan Pablo aligned with LAFC as a technical consultant based out of Medellin, Colombia, one of the chief architects of a Major League Soccer expansion team’s South American scouting network saw his son move through that pipeline to Los Angeles.

Following a 21-year playing career in Colombia, Argentina, the English Premier League and MLS, where he amassed 272 goals in 717 club appearances plus another nine in 33 caps for the Colombian national team, Juan Pablo’s off-field acumen led him to collaborate with LAFC, which he does to this day.

“The vision and investment of this club to find players in South America is impressive and shows that LAFC is committed to doing things differently in order to be successful,” Juan Pablo said at the time of his hiring.

During the past three years with Atlético Nacional in Colombia’s first division, Tomás emerged as an LAFC target, registering eight goals and two assists across all competitions in 52 appearances, winning a pair of Colombian Cups, one league title and, in 2023, a Colombian Super Cup.

Ángel has represented the Colombian national team at the U19 and U20 levels. In 15 appearances with the U20s, he scored five goals, including three in five games during the 2023 U-20 FIFA World Cup.

“Tommy is a gifted and versatile attacker whom we have been monitoring for quite some time during his time with Atlético Nacional and with the Colombian national teams,” LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington said in a statement. “Tommy knows LAFC well, and we are grateful he also believes LAFC is a fantastic next step for his promising career.”

The literal fruit of that labor officially joined LAFC on Wednesday, when Tomás Ángel, the 20-year-old son of retired Colombian striker Juan Pablo Ángel, agreed to a deal with the Black & Gold through 2026, including a club option for 2027.

Seven years after Juan Pablo aligned with LAFC as a technical consultant based out of Medellin, Colombia, one of the chief architects of a Major League Soccer expansion team’s South American scouting network saw his son move through that pipeline to Los Angeles.

Following a 21-year playing career in Colombia, Argentina, the English Premier League and MLS, where he amassed 272 goals in 717 club appearances plus another nine in 33 caps for the Colombian national team, Juan Pablo’s off-field acumen led him to collaborate with LAFC, which he does to this day.

“The vision and investment of this club to find players in South America is impressive and shows that LAFC is committed to doing things differently in order to be successful,” Juan Pablo said at the time of his hiring.

During the past three years with Atlético Nacional in Colombia’s first division, Tomás emerged as an LAFC target, registering eight goals and two assists across all competitions in 52 appearances, winning a pair of Colombian Cups, one league title and, in 2023, a Colombian Super Cup.

Ángel has represented the Colombian national team at the U19 and U20 levels. In 15 appearances with the U20s, he scored five goals, including three in five games during the 2023 U-20 FIFA World Cup.

“Tommy is a gifted and versatile attacker whom we have been monitoring for quite some time during his time with Atlético Nacional and with the Colombian national teams,” LAFC co-president and general manager John Thorrington said in a statement. “Tommy knows LAFC well, and we are grateful he also believes LAFC is a fantastic next step for his promising career.”