Defenders of the Banc - The LAFC Podcast

Send us a text LAFC. Portland. No love lost between these two teams who have fast become rivals. The group stage of the (Most Of) MLS Is Back tournament comes to a close with a hotly contested match between the two, ending in a draw, 2-2.    Here on Episode 106, we break down the draw to end Group F and look ahead to a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Final, as LAFC’s Round of 16 matchup...

Send us a text Episode 105 – Diego Dazzles on Derby Day   Oh, Diego Rossi! The man who scored the first goal against the Sounders etched his name once again into the MLS history books, and he picked Derby Day in the Covid Cup to do it!    Episode 105 of Defenders of the Banc is upon us, and, for the first time in months, the boys are together in world famous Filimonster Studios, recording together...

Send us a text It’s been several months, but it looks like the MLS Is Back tournament is FINALLY set to kick off in less than 24 hours. Unless you play for FC Dallas. Or maybe Nashville SC. Or one-fifth of the Vancouver Whitecaps. Or 2019 MLS Defender of the Year Ike Opara. Or, as we learned this week, reigning MLS MVP Carlos Vela of LAFC. But other than those players (and a handful of others…), M...

Send us a text With an intro befitting the man, Filly and The Scarf welcome 2019 MLS Doug Hamilton Executive of the Year and LAFC's EVP and Chief Business Officer Larry Freedman to the show. Larry dishes on all things LAFC, including the work LAFC has done and still needs to do for social change, incredible moments throughout the first two seasons, the upcoming MLS is Back tournament, and what HIS...

Send us a text 15 episodes and 101 days. That’s how long it’s been since we were in the same room recording together. Much in the world has changed. Much in the world still needs to change. But as the song goes, “Reunited, and it feels so good!” Filly and the Scarf invade Culver City to record Episode 102 TOGETHER for the first time in a long time, and we couldn’t be happier.  If you haven’t heard...

Send us a text Kicking off the next hundred episodes as only we know how, The Defenders of the Banc (for however much longer we are called that!) FINALLY sit down with club legend, fan favorite, and one of the nicest, most personable guys in MLS, Steven Beitashour.    As a member of the inaugural team in 2018, Steven Beitashour added leadership and incredible skill playing out of the back for LAFC...

Send us a text It’s safe to say that when we started planning Episode 100, which was right around February 1st , after we recorded Episode 80, we did not see any of this coming. About one month later, a global pandemic hit the US, and the specter of coronavirus has irreversibly and, likely, permanently changed our lives. Just when we started to see a light at the end of the tunnel that we didn’t t...

Send us a text This is normally the part where we try to come up with some clever hook to get you excited about listening to our latest episode. Here it is: ADAMA DIOMANDE IS ON DEFENDERS!!! Yes, that’s right, LAFC’s own Great One, #99, the man who registered the first hat trick in team history, the ender of Carson’s season, and the third-leading scorer all-time at LAFC, Adama Diomande sits down w...

Send us a text As we near ever closer to the 100th episode, we begin to think about those bucket list items that we would like to achieve. While we haven’t scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro or learned Swedish yet, Episode 98 is one of those bucket list moments for Filly and the Scarf.   While he rose to fame as a model in Italy in his early 20’s, Max Bretos has made a splash on the world of sports for severa...

Send us a text We may not have been able to go nuts at the Banc watching our boys beat Carson, or rally Remi to a virtual victory in the eMLS tournament, or even actually see the game going on inside Dave Denholm’s head, but the boys at Defenders of the Banc are here to re-cap every LAFC-filled event going on this past week. It’s time for Episode 97!   In the next of the soon-to-be-short lived ser...

Send us a text Episode 96 – Practice! We’re Talking About Practice! Finally! Live players. On a real pitch. Wearing those beautiful grey LAFC practice kits! It’s Episode 96, and, after about 8 weeks, we finally get to talk about… practice!  It may only be a few players at a time, and they may not be able to share a ball or a bottle of water, let alone the workout room, but this week, LAFC’s Traini...

Send us a text Take a journey down the 95 with Filly and The Scarf! Just 5 episodes away from triple digits, the Defenders break down yet another virtual victory for RemiMartinn, this time over SKC’s eMLS representative, Alekzandur, Alexander Betancourt. With a surprising amount of LAFC-related news to tackle, and the occasional rant with Filly, sit back and enjoy Episode 95!   With MLS set to ope...

Send us a text The headline is almost becoming redundant: “RemiMartinn Wins Again”, and we couldn’t be happier! The Crusading Champion of the Controllers, Martin Oregel, takes to Twitch once again in another installment of the LAFC Gaming Charity FIFA Challenge, this time against Chicago’s BITW7. It’s time for Episode 94 and more victorious exploits from our eMLS gamer.   RemiMartinn absolutely di...

Send us a text It might be hard to keep track of the days of the week, but at least the boys at Defenders of the Banc are keeping track of their episode numbers. It’s time for 93!  Since the quarantine, it’s been the RemiMartinn show, and he has provided us with plenty of entertainment. This weekend marks the kickoff of the eMLS Tournament Special, a new 32-player tournament featuring one active M...

Send us a text On Episode 92, the 5th episode in our social distancing series, the boys may finally be losing it. Scarf sings The Police (not well), Filly busts a blood vessel as Filly Savage, and the mere mention of one of Saskatchewan’s most beautiful cities, Regina, makes them crack up like the middle schoolers Scarf teaches.    Don’t worry! The Defenders actually spend most of the episode on L...

Send us a text With the Coronavirus quarantine in full effect and the Belarusian Premier League having finished for the day, the good people over at LAFC Gaming knew just how to get 17,600 members of the Black and Gold faithful hyped for soccer: RemiMartinn.  eMLS’s number 5 ranked competitor was set to take the sticks against FC Dallas’s gamer, i9ibbs, in the second FIFA20 Charity Challenge. Stil...

Send us a text There's no need to look for Polish MMA or Hungarian soccer! Here on Episode 90 of Defenders of the Banc, we've got all the details on the domination of the "Digital Derby" in our first episode covering eMLS! While physical sports are on hold for now, leave it to our good friend Alex Sale and everyone at LAFC and LAFC Gaming to keep the competitive juices flowing. Martin "RemiMartinn...

Send us a text Cruz Azul at home? Postponed. A trip to Estadio Azteca? Grounded. Turning the Timbers into toothpicks? Delayed. But it's going to take more than a worldwide pandemic to keep Filly and the Scarf from recording our latest episode! Welcome to Episode 89, Podcasting While Social Distancing. Keeping a standard 6-city distance away from each other, Scarf is home in Lawndale while Filly se...

Send us a text The headline on CNN said it all: "America is on hold." In what seemed like mere minutes, sports leagues, concerts, festivals, celebrations, and other large galas went from "wait and see" to "postponed indefinitely" or canceled. Coronavirus has made its way into the very fabric of the world, and, with it, among many other things, postponed the CCL match between your LAFC black and go...

Send us a text Welcome to Episode 87 of the LAFC Podcast for the People, Defenders of the Banc! We head back at the Banc for the second match of the 2020 season. In town are the Philadelphia Union, and who could have predicted this match would have gone much like many of the boxing matches of Philly’s Finest Fictional Fighter, Rocky Balboa.  It was a true back-and-forth affair, as LAFC played catc...

Send us a text Reunited... And it feels so good! Filly is back from Italy, and just in time, too! It's time to celebrate the 31st birthday of the greatest player in team history and the owner of the left foot of God, Carlos Vela! In honor of Carlos's birthday, footballing legend David Beckham and his Inter Miami CF have been invited to the Banc to kickoff MLS's 25th season and the third season for...

Send us a text The Cathedral of the Black and Gold welcomes the faithful and the spirited of LAFC as Liga MX foe Leon enters their worst nightmare, the den of the 3252, to take on LAFC in the second leg of Round 1 of the CONCACAF Champions League tournament.  In what would turn out to be a historic night for LAFC, the boys would go on to not only defeat Leon but advance in the CCL, 3-2 on aggregat...

Send us a text Away Days in Leon. Just typing the words brings me (Scarf) back to tacos and seafood, a few too many tequila shots, and the incredible atmosphere inside Estadio Leon, home of Los Panzas Verdes, Club Leon FC.  Welcome to Episode 83. What Tom Hanks was to Cast Away, Scarf is to this episode. Alone. With Nina in Anaheim and Filly and Panda in Rome, it's all Scarf, all the time on Episo...

Send us a text To deal with the chaos and carnage of the MLS season, the Champions League, the Open Cup, the MLS Playoffs, and the many, many cool events that LAFC puts on, some people like to unwind with a run. Apparently, this is a relaxing endeavor. While Scarf does not understand this concept, Filly and Panda are avid runners, even when something is not chasing them. (Please do not chase Scarf...

Send us a text The preseason comes to a close with a mid-day, mid-week match against Toronto FC, and with that comes Episode 82 of the LAFC Podcast for the People, Defenders of the Banc! Walker Zimmerman was traded to Nashville SC. We didn't believe the headline when we read it, either, but it's true. Yes, it was for a potential record-setting amount of GAM for a defender, but, wow. Just like that...