{"id":1008549,"date":"2026-08-18T11:58:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1008549\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:58:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:58:40","slug":"jacob-shaffelburgs-world-cup-ride-fueling-lafcs-post-break-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1008549\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Shaffelburg\u2019s World Cup ride fueling LAFC\u2019s post-break surge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how to skate,\u201d Jacob Shaffelburg<\/a> said last week.<\/p>\n

For most people, that confession would hardly be noteworthy. But for a young athlete growing up in Canada, where the most-popular sports take place on ice, it was a deal-breaker.<\/p>\n

So as a schoolboy Shaffelburg found a couple of other sports at which to excel \u2014 and another country in which to excel at them \u2014 beginning a 12-year journey that led him back home for this summer\u2019s World Cup, where he and the Canadian team made history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was wild. And to be in a home World Cup is even crazier,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was such a cool experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

One made even cooler by the fact one of his LAFC<\/a> teammates, Mathieu Choiniere<\/a>, was also playing in his first World Cup for Canada while LAFC captain Son Heung-min<\/a> was representing South Korea for the fourth time. Add in Canada\u2019s Stephen Eust\u00e1quio<\/a>, who was on the LAFC roster when he left for the World Cup but headed to Portuguese club Porto after the tournament, and LAFC sent more players to this summer\u2019s World Cup than any other MLS team.<\/p>\n

And LAFC coach Marc Dos Santos<\/a> insists there\u2019s a connection between that fact and the one that shows the team went unbeaten in its first seven games in all competition following the World Cup break.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you play in such a big international competition where the spotlight is on your country and you\u2019re participating in it, of course confidence grows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Since returning from that tournament, Son scored his first four goals of the season, Choiniere has contributed two assists and Shaffelburg\u2019s desperation cross into the box set up the stoppage-time goal that beat Toluca in a Leagues Cup game LAFC had to win to stay alive in the competition.<\/p>\n

None of the three came home with a trophy, but the memories and inspiration they drew may be even more valuable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dream,\u201d said Choiniere, who started and went 57 minutes against Switzerland in his only World Cup appearance. \u201cSo for me, sure it gave me confidence. It was an extra boost to believe even more in my qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat experience gave me more excitement to come back here and play with these guys,\u201d Shaffelburg, 26, said after stepping off the training pitch last Tuesday. \u201cI don\u2019t know exactly what it\u2019s from. If it\u2019s just playing in front of all those people or if it\u2019s just thinking that I have been in a World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut since coming back I\u2019ve felt a lot more confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LAFC's <\/p>\n

LAFC\u2019s Mathieu Choiniere controls the ball during a win over the Galaxy on July 17.<\/p>\n

(Shaun Clark \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Shaffelburg came off the bench in all five of Canada\u2019s World Cup games and teamed with Eust\u00e1quio on his team\u2019s biggest moment, the stoppage-time goal that beat South Africa at SoFi Stadium in Canada\u2019s first-ever trip to the elimination rounds of the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to cross the ball,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to cross the ball sometimes to make something happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to make something happen is an apt way to describe Shaffelburg\u2019s entire athletic career. Because he couldn\u2019t skate growing up in tiny Port Williams, Nova Scotia \u2014 population 1,100 \u2014 Shaffelburg turned first to running, winning the province championship at 3,000 meters in middle school. But that same year he left Canada \u2014 and distance running \u2014 to join the elite soccer program at the Berkshire School in Massachusetts, where he was named the state\u2019s player of the year as a senior.<\/p>\n

That led to stints in MLS with Toronto, where he won a Canadian championship, and Nashville, where he won a U.S. Open Cup, before being sent west for $1 million in allocation money last December. Shaffelburg\u2019s boundless enthusiasm and high work rate led one LAFC staffer to liken him to an excitable golden retriever, a comparison the player did not challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always in sixth gear. Because if I go below six, I\u2019m not a very good player,\u201d the winger said. \u201cI have to make up for my less technical side. I go hard every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

That attitude is what landed him on the national team, where he got his first call-up under John Herdman but became a regular under Jesse Marsch, a former MLS player and coach who values the grit and tenacity MLS players bring \u2014 which is why Canada had a World Cup-high nine players from the league on its 26-man roster.<\/p>\n

Shaffelburg, Marsch said, is a perfect example of that MLS mentality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of coaches that may look at Jacob Shaffelburg and think \u2018yeah, he\u2019s not the most elegant technical player,\u2019\u201d Marsch said. \u201c[But] he was the kind of player that I like. A fearless player who likes to run, who\u2019s aggressive, who likes to go at opponents. That relentlessness resonates with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo we need more players like him? I\u2019d probably say yes. Just because of the qualities he has as a person even more than as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Choiniere, 27, is another grinder; a player known more for his selfless play than for any flashy stats. Growing up in Quebec, the midfielder said he was fitted for hockey skates long before he tried on soccer cleats. Those priorities soon changed, however, and he was playing organized soccer before he entered kindergarten, then joined CF Montreal\u2019s youth academy before he entered high school.<\/p>\n

He won two Canadian championships and was a two-time MLS All-Star with Montreal before jumping to the Swiss Super League. After just 17 games in Zurich, he returned to MLS on loan last summer, a loan LAFC made permanent in December when it signed Choiniere through 2028.<\/p>\n

None of that compared to playing in World Cup at home, both in Canada where he was born and in Los Angeles where he now lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans, the atmosphere, everything is going to be in the list,\u201d Choiniere said. \u201cWhen I\u2019m going to retire, I\u2019ll be like \u2018wow, I\u2019m so proud of this memory.\u2019 It will be with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaffelburg feels the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking out and seeing the whole stadium, 50,000 people in all red, was unbelievable,\u201d he said. \u201cI never thought there\u2019d be a day like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the World Cup success, Shaffelburg isn\u2019t resting on those laurels. He\u2019ll be just as focused going into Wednesday\u2019s midweek MLS game in Colorado as he was for Canada\u2019s round-of-16 game with Morocco, the most-watched soccer match in Canadian history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just try to be humble and try to prove to myself that I deserve to be here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I go [all out] to the wall every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u26bd You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week\u2019s episode of the \u201cCorner of the Galaxy\u201d podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t know how to skate,\u201d Jacob Shaffelburg said last week. For most people, that confession would hardly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1008550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2147,403792,1910,42155,403791,11242,2961,2220,26822,224,5337,89323,6656,7605,9323,87648,1443,21490],"class_list":["post-1008549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-canada","tag-canadian-team","tag-game","tag-goal","tag-jacob-shaffelburg","tag-jesse-marsch","tag-la","tag-lafc","tag-last-week","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mathieu-choiniere","tag-mls","tag-most-people","tag-player","tag-same-year","tag-tournament","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117116399314872974","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1008550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}