![\"Armando](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/8ab600a0-0138-11e8-ab60-7bea44e6ab5e_unnamed-1-.jpg\"\/)
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:45 PM PST<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 On a night when the visitors were seemingly the main attraction, the home team stepped up to defend its turf.\u00a0Even though it wasn\u2019t actually its home turf.<\/p>\n
In what felt like the main event of Matchday 1 of the 2026 MLS season, LAFC upset reigning champion Inter Miami, 3-0, in front of over 75,673 fans inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.<\/p>\n
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This was a very on-brand win over Inter Miami, because that\u2019s what LAFC does. David Mart\u00ednez scored the opener, with Son Heung-min providing the assist that made it all feel so simple. As if winning was never in the cards for Inter Miami.<\/p>\n
Denis Bouanga added another in the 73rd minute with a moment of sheer brilliance to double the lead. The Frenchman played a majestic Timothy Tillman pass from 50 yards out to perfection and headed it to himself over the head of Dayne St. Clair into the net.<\/p>\n
Then it was Nathan Ordaz who stepped up in stoppage time to seal the deal and send the visitors home deflated.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t a normal LAFC home opener. MLS dragged the game out of LAFC\u2019s cozy BMO Stadium and into a 100-year-old concrete monster just to contain the Messi effect. More than 75,000 showed up. Cameras everywhere. Pink shirts too, but fewer than expected. Son fans, meanwhile, showed out and basically won the night.<\/p>\n
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The opener was supposed to be about the defending champs. The repeat talk. The gravity of Messi bending the league toward Miami.<\/p>\n
And of course, Messi was Messi. Every touch got a reaction. Every drift inside felt like it might end someone\u2019s evening. Inter Miami looked exactly like a team that knows the season is long and the World Cup clock is already ticking.<\/p>\n
LAFC did not care.<\/p>\n
The Black and Gold stayed compact. They stayed patient. And when the opening came, Son slipped Mart\u00ednez through, and Mart\u00ednez finished like the script wasn\u2019t his responsibility. Bouanga met the moment with finesse before Ordaz unleashed a finishing move to cap the win.<\/p>\n
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LAFC did what it does: absorb, disrupt, frustrate. Miami had the ball. Messi had moments. The goals never came.<\/p>\n
So the season began in a stadium that\u2019s hosted Olympics, Super Bowls and just about everything else. But on this night, the league\u2019s biggest attraction still got upstaged.<\/p>\n
Welcome back, MLS.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how the action unfolded in real time:<\/p>\n
Live coverage is over27 updates<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:44 PM PST<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a wrap from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:40 PM PST<\/p>\n
Nathan Ordaz adds another one and this has turned into a rout. A clear cut win in every way for the home side.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:34 PM PST<\/p>\n
Attendance is 75,673, the most attended opening weekend match in MLS history and the second highest attendance of any match all time.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:33 PM PST<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:23 PM PST<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:21 PM PST<\/p>\n
Bouanga played a Tilman pass absolutely perfectly on the counterattack. With a quick flick over the head of St. Clair he rebounded his self-pass and directed the ball into the net for the two-goal lead. That could be it for the home team after a brilliant pass from Tilman and a finesse finish from the Frenchman.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:13 PM PST<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:11 PM PST<\/p>\n
Berterame gets his best chance of the night with a wide open shot mere feet away from Lloris but sends it wide right instead.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 8:07 PM PST<\/p>\n
Depaul\u2019s cross finds Berterame in the box, however, Porteous dives in front of it to send it out of bounds with a dangerous header.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:53 PM PST<\/p>\n
The second half is underway!<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:45 PM PST<\/p>\n
Armando Botello II<\/p>\n
The opener may have been meant to\u00a0be about the reigning champs, the repeat talk, the gravity of Messi bending the league toward Miami. Instead, LAFC owned the first half. Not just with the goal, but with 10-3 total shots, 3 of which were on target with just 1 for Miami. An upset for the reigning champs is brewing. How will they respond?<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:36 PM PST<\/p>\n
Messi nearly equalizes after being thrown to the ground. He quickly hopped up and found the ball in front of him 20 yards away from Lloris and sent it sailing.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:32 PM PST<\/p>\n
On nearly the exact same set up, Bouanga finds a streaking Martinez for a 1-on-1, only this time Martinez\u2019s curler goes just wide of the far post. LAFC nearly took a two-goal lead into halftime.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:22 PM PST<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:20 PM PST<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:18 PM PST<\/p>\n
LAFC gets on the board first thanks to a mistake by Miami. Tilman forced the turnover, but it was Son who capitalized with an assist to Martinez. The young Venezuelan curled the ball past St. Clair and into the far left corner of the goal to put the home squad ahead.<\/p>\n
Sat, February 21, 2026 at 7:08 PM PST<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Bouanga again sending in a stealth cross right in front of St. Clair, but Martinez can\u2019t get his foot on it.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 On a night when the visitors were seemingly the main attraction, the home team stepped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[78426,26641,1657,10073,63686,14236,123,125,124,5692,78490,63688,78430],"class_list":{"0":"post-164516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-david-martinez","9":"tag-dayne-st-clair","10":"tag-denis-bouanga","11":"tag-inter-miami","12":"tag-lafc","13":"tag-messi","14":"tag-miami","15":"tag-miami-headlines","16":"tag-miami-news","17":"tag-mls","18":"tag-nathan-ordaz","19":"tag-son-heung-min","20":"tag-timothy-tillman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}