{"id":188254,"date":"2026-02-22T03:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188254\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T03:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T03:04:21","slug":"lafc-vs-inter-miami-live-updates-score-lionel-messi-and-co-kick-off-title-defense-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188254\/","title":{"rendered":"LAFC vs. Inter Miami live updates, score: Lionel Messi and Co. kick off title defense in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0A reloaded Inter Miami<\/a> opens its title defense Saturday night against LAFC, carrying the weight that comes with being the reigning MLS Cup champion and, of course, the team everyone wants to see.<\/p>\n

That mostly has to do with one Lionel Messi, the two-time MLS MVP and World Cup winner who has turned Miami into not just the league\u2019s main attraction, but also its most valuable franchise<\/a>. The pink-clad visitors arrive as betting favorites to repeat, but before any talk of trophies, they\u2019ll start the season thousands of miles from home, in front of an expected crowd of more than 60,000 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Yes, that Coliseum. The historic home of USC football that sits right next door to LAFC\u2019s much cozier BMO Stadium. It\u2019s the first MLS regular-season game ever played there, and it was moved to accommodate the Messi effect.<\/p>\n

Messi, coming off another ridiculous year, enters 2026 with one eye on another World Cup run with Argentina, which means Miami will be careful early in the season. Still, when he\u2019s on the field, he changes everything \u2014 for opponents, for stadiums, and for the league.<\/p>\n

And so the season begins here, under the bright lights, in a building that\u2019s seen just about everything.<\/p>\n

Follow all of the action below.<\/p>\n

Live10 updates<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:03 PM PST<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 6:59 PM PST<\/p>\n

Bouanga again slices through the Miami defense with a pass to Tilman inside the box. Tilman\u2019s goal opportunity was quickly nixed, however, as Falcon slid in front of it and deflected it out.<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 6:53 PM PST<\/p>\n

Berterame gets in on the action hoping to feed Messi near the box. Porteous is there to intercede and sends the incoming pass the other way,<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 6:50 PM PST<\/p>\n

Bouanga brilliantly cut through the Miami defense to feed the run of Son, who had a 1-on-1 with St. Clair but couldn\u2019t find the shot. He sends it back Bouanga who one times it, forcing the save from St. Clair.<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 6:45 PM PST<\/p>\n

De Paul chips the ball flying into the box toward a streaking Messi, but Lloris is there to thwart the attack as he falls on top of it.<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 6:41 PM PST<\/p>\n

We are underway from the Coliseum. It\u2019s a battle of two of the top teams in MLS and could give us a glimpse of how the season will unfold. And it\u2019s only Matchday 1.<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 6:30 PM PST<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 6:20 PM PST<\/p>\n

Inter Miami: Dayne St. Clair; Ian Fray, Maximiliano Falcon, Micael, Noah Allen; Rodrigo De Paul, Yannick Bright; Mateo Silvetti, Lionel Messi, Telasco Segovia; German Berterame.<\/p>\n

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 6:14 PM PST<\/p>\n

LAFC: Hugo Lloris; Sergi Palencia, Nkosi Tafari, Ryan Porteous, Eddie Segura; Timothy Tillman, Stephen Eustaquio, Marco Delgado; David Martinez, Son Heung-min and Denis Bouanga.<\/p>\n

\"ArmandoSat, February 21, 2026 at 6:09 PM PST<\/p>\n

Armando Botello II<\/p>\n

Hello and welcome to Yahoo Sports\u2019 live coverage of LAFC vs. Inter Miami. We\u2019re live from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and will drop updates right here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0A reloaded Inter Miami opens its title defense Saturday night against LAFC, carrying the weight that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[44138,48,52,51,12407,12409,47,50,27989,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-188254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-inter-miami","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-lafc","13":"tag-lionel-messi","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","16":"tag-los-angeles-memorial-coliseum","17":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}