Published for Los Angeles FC fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
🖤 LAFC Fans — Your Black & Gold Is Coming for the Cup!
Son Heung-min is dealing, Denis Bouanga is chasing history, and one point against the Galaxy seals another playoff run. Black shirts, gold trim, full voice — wear the Black & Gold like you mean it.
The Club
Los Angeles Football Club was founded on October 30, 2014, and kicked off its first MLS season in 2018 — the ninth season of the Black & Gold, and already one of the most decorated young clubs in league history. The ownership group includes Will Ferrell, Magic Johnson and Mia Hamm, and the identity is unmistakable: black, gold, and a falcon on the crest. New to the LAFC roster and LAFC schedule? Start here: no MLS club does matchday theatre quite like this one.
Home is BMO Stadium in Exposition Park, a 22,000-seat soccer-specific stadium opened on April 18, 2018. The North End belongs to the 3252, the supporters’ union whose drums set the volume. Demand runs so high that the club moved one 2026 match — the season opener against Inter Miami — next door to the LA Memorial Coliseum. Every other home game is at BMO.
The dugout has told the story of the last twelve months. Steve Cherundolo’s planned farewell came with the playoff loss at Vancouver on November 22, 2025. His successor, longtime assistant Marc Dos Santos, opened 2026 like a dream — then, after two wins in 13 matches, was dismissed in late September, the first in-season coaching change in club history. Interim head coach Xavi Tamarit took over on October 1 — and LAFC are unbeaten in his first three matches.
Is Son Heung-min playing today? It is the LAFC version of the question America asks about Messi every week — and the answer is the best one: yes, fit, starting, and creating goals at a record pace. South Korea’s captain wears the No. 7, his shirt became a global best-seller within weeks of his arrival, and this playoff push runs through him and Bouanga.
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Last Season (2025): The Son Show Arrives
For five months, 2025 was a good Bouanga-led season: third in the Western Conference, 60 points (17W–9D–8L), 65 goals scored. Bouanga was relentless — 24 league goals, second in the Golden Boot race behind Messi’s 29, a third straight MLS Best XI selection, and on September 17 he passed Carlos Vela to become LAFC’s all-time leading scorer, the first player in MLS history with 20 or more goals in three straight seasons. The Supporters’ Shield went to Philadelphia, but LAFC’s ceiling was about to change completely.
In August, Son Heung-min landed from Tottenham Hotspur for a reported MLS-record fee of around $26.5 million — and scored nine goals with three assists in ten regular-season appearances, winning the 2025 MLS Goal of the Year. The playoffs summed up the new era: a Round One win over Austin, in which Bouanga reached 100 goals in all competitions for the club, then a Western Conference Semifinal epic at Vancouver on November 22 — two-nil down at half-time before 53,957 fans, Son dragged LAFC level with a 60th-minute strike and a free kick at 90+5′, before LAFC lost the shootout 4–3 in Cherundolo’s final match.
Best Players Right Now
Son Heung-min — #7, forward. LAFC’s global superstar, in his first full MLS season — and 2026 flipped his script. After scoring for fun last fall, he became the league’s chief creator: seven goals and 15 assists, the assists tying Carlos Vela’s single-season club record from 2019 and matching Messi at the top of the league. Signed from Tottenham in August 2025 for a reported MLS-record fee.
Denis Bouanga — #99, forward. The club’s all-time leading scorer leads LAFC again in 2026 with 17 goals and nine assists — seven in his last eight appearances before the Galaxy game. He sits three short of a fourth straight 20-goal MLS season, and in February he signed a new contract through 2028.
Hugo Lloris — #1, goalkeeper. France’s 2018 World Cup-winning captain — and Son’s former captain at Tottenham — has posted 12 clean sheets in 2026, second-most in MLS. He opened the season with an MLS-record six straight shutouts, a 593-minute scoreless streak, and a spring leg injury barely slowed him.
David Martínez — #30, forward. The 20-year-old Venezuelan is the breakout young star of this roster: he scored the opener in the February win over Inter Miami, set up by Son, and created Bouanga’s Leagues Cup goal against Chivas. The future of the LAFC attack is already on the pitch.
Timothy Tillman — #11, central midfielder. The engine room. Tillman scored the 86th-minute winner against Seattle on May 24 — the last match before the World Cup break — and opened the scoring in the Champions Cup semifinal first leg against Toluca. Under contract through 2028.
Mark Delgado — #8, central midfielder. The Glendora native crossed the derby divide from the LA Galaxy and became a derby hero, scoring the opener in the July 17 El Tráfico win against his old club. A durable starter, signed through 2028.
Star Spotlight
Son vs Messi at the Coliseum. February 21, 2026: MLS moved the season opener against Inter Miami next door to the LA Memorial Coliseum, and 75,673 fans — the second-largest crowd in MLS history — watched LAFC dismantle the defending champions 3–0 in Marc Dos Santos’s head-coaching debut. Son set up Martínez’s 38th-minute opener, Bouanga and Nathan Ordaz added the rest, and Lloris kept the clean sheet. Afterwards, Bouanga swapped shirts with Messi — at his son’s request, he said.
Son’s Vancouver heroics in a losing cause. November 22, 2025, the Western Conference Semifinal: 2–0 down at half-time at BC Place, season on the brink. Son scored in the 60th minute, then curled in a free kick at 90+5′ to force extra time against the No. 2 seed. The shootout went Vancouver’s way, 4–3, and an era ended — but for one half, one man refused to let LAFC lose.
The assist king and the Austin breakout. October 14, 2026, with the playoffs in doubt: Son created Bouanga’s 52nd-minute opener, Bouanga restored the lead a minute after Austin’s equalizer, and Son scored the third himself. One goal and two assists for Son, a brace and an assist for Bouanga, Tamarit’s first win — and the night Son pulled level with Vela’s club-record 15 assists. Bouanga’s Leagues Cup goal against Chivas in August was his 14th in that competition, tying Messi as its all-time top scorer.
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This Season (2026): Defense First, Derby Decider
LAFC sit sixth in the Western Conference on 46 points from 31 matches (12W–10D–9L). The 33 goals conceded are the third-fewest in all of MLS; it is the 48 scored, only 15th in the league, that has kept them in a fight. They sit two points behind fourth-placed San Jose — and the playoff spot is not yet sealed. The equation for Sunday is simple: a win or a draw against the LA Galaxy clinches LAFC’s place in the Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs.
The arc explains the tension. The season opened like a coronation — unbeaten in the first 11 matches in all competitions, outscoring opponents 27–3 — and peaked in a Champions Cup semifinal run: Real España and Cruz Azul beaten, and a 2–1 first-leg win over Toluca at BMO on April 29. Then the 4–0 second-leg defeat at altitude in Toluca, and a long slide: one win in five across August and September, a damaging 3–1 loss at last-placed Sporting Kansas City, and the end of Dos Santos. Son’s World Cup ended in the group stage with South Korea; his first MLS goal of 2026 came in the first game back, the July 17 derby win. Unbeaten under Tamarit, three games to finish the job.
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Mark Your Calendar
Sunday, October 25, 2026 — vs LA Galaxy, BMO Stadium (6:00 p.m. PT). El Tráfico, the 28th edition, on Sunday Night Soccer: the series is tied 10–10, and a win or draw seals LAFC’s playoff spot.
Sunday, November 1, 2026 — vs Minnesota United FC, BMO Stadium (5:30 p.m. PT). The regular-season home finale, with top-four seeding still in play.
Saturday, November 7, 2026 — at Seattle Sounders FC, Lumen Field (4:00 p.m. PT). Decision Day at the home of LAFC’s Western Conference measuring stick, with final seeding on the line.
November 20 – December 2, 2026 — Round One, Best-of-3. LAFC’s playoff run begins here as things stand; the Wild Card round, Wednesday, November 18, only comes into play if they slip to eighth or ninth. Conference semifinals follow December 5–6, conference finals December 11–12, and MLS Cup 2026 lands on Friday, December 18. Every match streams on Apple TV with MLS Season Pass.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. LA Galaxy — El Tráfico. MLS’s fiercest derby, dating to LAFC’s first season and a first meeting on March 31, 2018 that the Galaxy won 4–3 on Zlatan Ibrahimović’s famous debut. The all-time series is dead level — 10 wins each with seven draws in 27 meetings — and LAFC have never led it outright; they can, for the first time ever, on October 25. The only 2026 meeting so far: a 3–0 LAFC win in Carson on July 17, Delgado scoring against his former club, Bouanga converting a penalty, Son adding his first league goal of the year. Bouanga has scored in seven straight derbies, 11 career goals in the fixture — only Vela, with 12, has more. LAFC have won both playoff meetings.
2. Inter Miami CF — the glamour fixture. Not a geographic rivalry — a star-power one. Son vs Messi is MLS’s marquee individual matchup: the 2026 edition was moved to the LA Memorial Coliseum and drew 75,673 fans for a 3–0 LAFC win in the opener. The clubs also met in Los Angeles in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup quarter-finals. Any meeting is a national event — and Miami are the defending champions.
3. Seattle Sounders FC — the Western Conference measuring stick. The West’s two perennial contenders, with real playoff scar tissue: Seattle knocked LAFC out of the 2024 playoffs with a 2–1 extra-time win at BMO in the Western Conference Semifinal — despite LAFC’s extraordinary home dominance in this fixture, 9W–0L–1D at BMO in regular-season play. The 2026 meeting at BMO finished 1–0 to LAFC on May 24, Tillman’s 86th-minute winner. The rivalry closes the regular season: Decision Day, November 7, at Lumen Field.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is LAFC’s next game?
Sunday, October 25, 2026 — El Tráfico against the LA Galaxy at BMO Stadium, 6:00 p.m. PT, on Apple TV’s Sunday Night Soccer. It is the 28th derby, the all-time series is tied 10–10, and LAFC clinch a 2026 playoff spot with a win or a draw. After that: the home finale against Minnesota United, then Decision Day at Seattle on November 7.
Is Son Heung-min playing for LAFC in 2026?
Yes — Son is LAFC’s star and a starter in his first full MLS season. He leads the team as its playmaker with seven goals and 15 assists, the assists tying Carlos Vela’s single-season club record and matching Messi for the league lead. He wears the No. 7 shirt, and the whole playoff push runs through him.
Where do LAFC play, and how do tickets work?
At BMO Stadium in Exposition Park, Los Angeles — capacity 22,000 — LAFC’s home since 2018. Tickets and season memberships are sold through lafc.com/tickets, the full schedule is at lafc.com/schedule, and every match also streams live on Apple TV via MLS Season Pass. The February 21, 2026 opener against Inter Miami was a one-off move to the LA Memorial Coliseum, drawing 75,673.
What have LAFC won?
Four major trophies in nine seasons: MLS Cup 2022, the Supporters’ Shield in 2019 and 2022, and the U.S. Open Cup in 2024. LAFC were also MLS Cup runners-up in 2023 and Champions League runners-up in 2020 and 2023, and reached the Champions Cup semifinals in 2026. The 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs are their remaining shot at silverware this year.
⚽ LAFC Fan Shop
The full Black & Gold trio — Son, Bouanga and Lloris in black and gold.
Sources & official links: LAFC official site · MLS official site · LAFC tickets
Black and gold, shoulder to shoulder, one more cup to chase — bring the noise, Los Angeles.
