Lloris, is contingent on the Los Angeles Football Club winning a high-stakes showdown tonight at sold-out BMO Stadium against Mexican giant Club América.

A guaranteed $9.55 million payday goes to the winning club, as does entry into the tournament’s Group D alongside Brazilian standout Flamengo, Espérance Sportive de Tunis and English power Chelsea FC.

Whoever wins today will group play against Chelsea on June 16 in Atlanta.

“It could be nice to meet Chelsea again,” shared Giroud, who was part of the Stamford Bridge squad that won its way into the tournament by claiming the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League title. “Obviously, it will be a massive game at the weekend against América.”

While France’s all-time leading scorer was notching goals in West London for The Blues and internationally with Les Bleus, Lloris stopped them in the northern part of the city for Tottenham and, as his country’s longest-tenured captain, across four trips to the FIFA World Cup.

“After so many years in this business I know when you have an opportunity you have to grab it, take it,” said Lloris, who finished runner-up in the 2019 Champions League final, one of 70 appearances in the tournament since 2008. “There’s nothing for granted in football. Just live the moment. Enjoy the moment. But at the same time you don’t want to have any regrets.”

Poise and results in pressure-packed games rank high among the reasons LAFC brought in the veteran winners. The season prior to their arrival, regret in similar situations became the Black & Gold story.

LAFC could have secured a spot in the Club World Cup via the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League, but that team ultimately fell flat, losing the two-leg final to Liga MX’s Club León.

The first of three unsuccessful finals for LAFC during head coach Steve Cherundolo’s second season seemed to dash the Black & Gold’s hope of qualifying for the new-look, high-profile tournament in the U.S. from June 14 to July 13 that boasts a record prize pool of $1 billion.

As fate would have it, six of the 22 LAFC players listed on the team sheet for the second leg against León will get a rare second bite at the apple. On May 6, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport finalized a ruling that affirmed FIFA’s decision to deem León ineligible for the Club World Cup because of ownership ties to the group that runs Pachuca, which also qualified by winning last year’s CONCACAF title.

FIFA’s contingency plan put LAFC, an 8-year-old MLS team, in the dare-to-dream scenario opposite 108-year-old América, which, despite losing the Liga MX Clausura final to Toluca on Tuesday, has reigned over Mexican soccer in recent years.

The teams’ only official encounter came in 2020. A dramatic 3-1 win for LAFC spearheaded by Mexican great Carlos Vela, who scored twice in two minutes, sent the Black & Gold into the CONCACAF Champions League final for the first time in its history.

LAFC enters the match unbeaten in its last eight — three wins and five draws in MLS regular-season action — since falling to Inter Miami in the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals April 9, an outcome that felt as self-inflicted as the faulty finals in 2023.

To get things right against América, Giroud and Lloris prescribed a sense of calm and serenity on the pitch, all the while matching or surpassing the opponent’s confidence, energy and intensity.

“That’s the only way to face bigger clubs,” Lloris said. “It’s easy to talk. But the most important truth is what is going to happen on the field.”