{"id":164586,"date":"2026-02-22T09:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/164586\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T09:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T09:38:08","slug":"lafc-stars-outshine-inter-miami-in-historic-clash-of-titans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/164586\/","title":{"rendered":"LAFC stars outshine Inter Miami in HISTORIC clash of titans"},"content":{"rendered":"

MLS opening day, 75,673 fans in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the GOAT on the opposing side? That was LAFC<\/a>‘s recipe for success on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The Black & Gold handled business in front of a historic crowd<\/a>, dominating Lionel Messi<\/a> and reigning MLS Cup presented by Audi champions Inter Miami CF<\/a> en route to a 3-0 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to win like this and still have so much margin to progress,\u201d said Marc dos Santos after securing the victory in his first game as LAFC head coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we want to play and build the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Off and running<\/p>\n

Saturday’s dream start to the 2026 MLS season came courtesy of goals from David Mart\u00ednez<\/a>, Denis Bouanga<\/a> and Nathan Ordaz<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first two also found the back of the net earlier in the week when LAFC cruised to a 6-1 win<\/a> at Real Espa\u00f1a in their 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA very positive thing is we played Tuesday in Honduras,\u201d dos Santos said. \u201cWe flew a very long flight, we had one day of training, and we were able to suffer as a team.<\/p>\n

“That quality of being able to suffer as a team together is an important quality for a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n A+ defense<\/p>\n

The last time they saw official competition, Miami stormed through the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs, scoring 20 times in six games during a memorable run to the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Herons kept 68 percent possession on Saturday, but produced only one big chance; new Designated Player signing Germ\u00e1n Berterame<\/a> was made largely invisible, and Messi didn\u2019t manage a single shot on target.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we prepared for the game, we prepared to face the best Messi possible,\u201d dos Santos said. \u201cI think that part of our game today, \u2018A+\u2019. The part of possession, \u2018B\u2019, we can be much better, and we want to be much better.<\/p>\n

“But our guys were a team, suffered together, were smart dealing with a lot of plays, and that\u2019s important going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Bouanga leads the way<\/p>\n

Canadian international Stephen Eust\u00e1quio<\/a>, playing as a holding midfielder in his long-awaited MLS debut, was at the center of LAFC\u2019s efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As was South Korean superstar Son Heung-Min<\/a>, who provided the assist on Mart\u00ednez’s 38th-minute opener.<\/p>\n

But it was Bouanga who turned an impressive win into a demolition job. The Gabon international forward scored a trademark goal to double the lead in the 73rd minute, dinking the ball over MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Dayne St. Clair and rolling it into the empty net, sending the record-breaking crowd<\/a> into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

Bouanga also added an assist on Ordaz’s second-half stoppage time strike, opening 2026 with two goal contributions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The atmosphere in the stadium was nice for the team,\u201d Bouanga told reporters. \u201cWe know the fans are coming to support us. It\u2019s good for my teammates and for me as we push in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLS opening day, 75,673 fans in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the GOAT on the opposing side?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[43215,43214,123,125,124,75441,76891,4959],"class_list":["post-164586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-lafcvsmia-02-21-2026","tag-los-angeles-football-club","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-mls-is-back","tag-priority-match","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164586","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=164586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}