{"id":166873,"date":"2026-02-24T12:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166873\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T12:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:42:20","slug":"record-crowd-for-lafc-inter-miami-was-about-more-than-lionel-messi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166873\/","title":{"rendered":"Record crowd for LAFC-Inter Miami was about more than Lionel Messi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than 75,000 people packed the Coliseum for a soccer game Saturday night.<\/p>\n

LAFC hosted the largest crowd for a soccer game in the world last weekend, the largest crowd for an MLS season-opening game and the second-largest in league history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MLS moved the game from cozy BMO Stadium, LAFC\u2019s regular home, a few hundred feet west to the cavernous 77,000-seat Coliseum because Lionel Messi<\/a>, arguably the best to ever play the sport, would be there. It worked: The crowd was the largest at the Coliseum for any event in more than six years.<\/p>\n

But the people didn\u2019t come to see Messi or his team, Inter Miami, the reigning MLS champion. The crowd was not dressed in Miami pink but in the black and gold of LAFC<\/a>, which won 3-0.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a good sign for MLS.<\/p>\n

According to one high-ranking MLS executive who has attended multiple Messi games in NFL stadiums, Saturday was the first time he heard he Argentine captain booed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans immediately started booing Inter Miami and Messi as they came out of the tunnel for warmups,\u201d said the executive, who was not authorized to speak publicly. \u201cAnd that continued throughout the game. There were hardly any pink jerseys in the crowd. It was a real testament to the incredible fan base of LAFC.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league made a trade-off in 2007 when the Galaxy signed David Beckham<\/a>, who was followed by a steady stream of big-name stars from Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robbie Keane and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Tens of thousands of curious fans came out to cheer the European soccer royalty, not the local teams they were playing against.<\/p>\n

Messi took that to another level. Three MLS teams drew the largest crowds in their franchises\u2019 histories when Messi came to town. He brought attention and excitement to MLS and eyeballs to its TV broadcasts.<\/p>\n

What the league needed to move to the next level, though, was an authentic fan culture. It needed supporters who cheered for their team through thick and thin, not curious, casual fans who came out to see whatever big-name player was passing through town but never came back.<\/p>\n

It has found that with LAFC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis atmosphere in the stadium is nice for the team. We know the fans are coming to support us,\u201d LAFC striker Denis Bouanga said. \u201cIt\u2019s good for me and my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twice in the last four seasons an LAFC game produced an attendance record. In 2023, LAFC played the Galaxy before 82,110 at the Rose Bowl, the largest crowd in league history. Saturday\u2019s attendance of 75,673 was the second-largest, and largest for a season opener.<\/p>\n

LAFC has earned that following. And if the team is the future of MLS, then it will be a bright future.<\/p>\n

Since LAFC began play in 2018, no other MLS team has won more games, scored more goals or amassed more points. No other team has won more trophies either. And while LAFC may not have Messi, it\u2019s hardly lacking for star power.<\/p>\n

Son Heung-min<\/a>, the captain of South Korea\u2019s national team and a former English Premier League scoring leader, assisted on LAFC\u2019s first goal Saturday. Bouanga, who scored the second goal, has more regular-season goals than Messi since Messi joined MLS in the summer of 2023. And Hugo Lloris, who pitched the shutout in goal, has played more World Cup games than any other goalkeeper in history.<\/p>\n

Lloris also has played in \u2014 and won \u2014 as many World Cup finals as Messi. In some parts of MLS, Messi is an enemy to be beaten, not a celebrity to be welcomed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to beat Messi; we want to beat Miami because Messi is there,\u201d Bouanga said. \u201cThe motivation is so high for this game. Maybe this game means more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly for LAFC supporters it did. Because more than 75,000 of them came to cheer the local team and boo the visiting one, no matter who was wearing that bright pink uniform.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a good sign for MLS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 75,000 people packed the Coliseum for a soccer game Saturday night. LAFC hosted the largest crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[52208,19188,10073,63686,79301,79300,1660,123,125,124,5692,79304,79306,79305,79302,6695,79303,11273],"class_list":{"0":"post-166873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-coliseum","9":"tag-fan","10":"tag-inter-miami","11":"tag-lafc","12":"tag-large-crowd","13":"tag-league-history","14":"tag-lionel-messi","15":"tag-miami","16":"tag-miami-headlines","17":"tag-miami-news","18":"tag-mls","19":"tag-mls-team","20":"tag-more-game","21":"tag-more-goal","22":"tag-record-crowd","23":"tag-saturday","24":"tag-soccer-game","25":"tag-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166873","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=166873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}