Preview | LAFC vs. Inter Miami CF – 2026 MLS Season

🏟 | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – Los Angeles, CA

LAFC’s ninth MLS regular season begins with a star-studded matchup against Inter Miami CF at the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. PT. 

The Coliseum, one of the city’s largest, oldest, and most venerable venues, opens its doors to two of the biggest signings in MLS history, LAFC’s Son Heung-Min and Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi, and a supporting cast of World Cup champions and Golden Boot winners, as part of the inaugural Walmart Saturday Showdown, Major League Soccer’s newest showcase broadcast on Apple TV.

An estimated crowd exceeding 60,000 will witness one of the most exciting club matchups in world football in 2026, inside a 102-year-old stadium in the heart of “the world’s city,” with the defending MLS Cup champions (Inter Miami) visiting the team that has amassed more goals, wins, and points than any other over the last eight years (LAFC).

Inter Miami rocked world soccer in 2023 when it acquired eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi. It was the highest-profile signing in league history at the time, exceeding the 2007 acquisition of David Beckham, who helped close the Messi deal as Inter Miami’s co-owner and president of soccer operations.

Messi’s impact on the league has been profound. The Argentine has elevated MLS’s global reputation and has added a league championship, a Supporters’ Shield, two MLS MVP awards, and a Golden Boot to his already full trophy case, which includes the long-awaited FIFA World Cup he won in 2022 in an epic final against LAFC’s Hugo Lloris and France. 

Saturday’s match marks Messi’s only scheduled appearance in California in 2026. He returned to training with the Herons on February 18 after resting a lower body muscle strain.

Son joined LAFC just six months ago and finished second to Messi in goal contributions per minute in 2025, with 12 goals and four assists over 13 games in 2025 (including playoffs), making a goal contribution every 68.9 minutes he was on the field. Cameras followed Son wherever he went, along with hordes of fans from his native Korea and from everywhere else in the world, as he and teammate Denis Bouanga combined for 25 goals and eight assists following his arrival. Son won the MLS Goal of the Year award for 2025, and was one of three finalists for MLS Newcomer of the Year.

The winners of two of the last four MLS Cups (LAFC won in ’22, Inter Miami in ’25) are seeking a head start in the race to see who will lift it in ‘26.

The league’s top two goal scorers in 2025 – Messi (29 goals) and Bouanga (24) – will start their 2026 campaigns on the same pitch. Bouanga has finished in the Top 2 in the MLS Golden Boot standings in each of the last three seasons, and he won the Boot outright in ‘23. No other MLS player has finished in the Top 5 in those three years.

There will be three World Cup captains on the pitch: Son (South Korea), Messi (Argentina), and LAFC goalkeeper Lloris, who captained France for more than a decade and led Les Bleus to the World Cup title in 2018 before falling to Messi and Argentina on penalties in the ’22 Final.  

Marc Dos Santos coaches his first MLS match in charge of the Black & Gold. Hired in December 2025 after serving as an LAFC assistant coach for five seasons, Dos Santos represents both a continuation of the Black & Gold standard, and a new beginning.

Other players at the Coliseum Saturday night who are expected to compete for their countries in FIFA World Cup 26 include LAFC’s Mathieu Choinière (Canada), Stephen Eustáquio (Canada), and Jacob Shaffelburg (Canada), with Timmy Tillman (USA) and Ryan Porteous (Scotland) in contention for roster spots when WC26 arrives in North America this summer.

In addition to Messi, Inter Miami will likely send Rodrigo De Paul (Argentina), Germán Berterame (Mexico) and Dayne St. Clair (Canada), the reigning MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, to this year’s FIFA World Cup. Berterame and St. Clair joined Inter Miami this offseason.

LAFC acquired midfielder Eustáquio two weeks ago on loan from FC Porto. The World Cup and UEFA Champions League veteran made his first start for the Black & Gold in Tuesday night’s 6-1 win over Real España in LAFC’s Concacaf Champions Cup opener. LAFC also added forwards Tyler Boyd and Shaffelburg in the offseason, buttressing a roster that returned almost everyone following its deep playoff run in 2025. 

In addition to Bertarame and St. Clair, Inter Miami added U22 midfielder David Ayala, centerback Micael, and fullback Sergio Reguilón during the winter transfer window. Reguilón played alongside Lloris and Son at Tottenham Hotspur for two seasons (2020-2022).

LAFC leads the all-time series, three wins to two. All three of LAFC’s wins in the series have come by shutout, including the clubs’ first two meetings in 2020 and 2022, and last year’s 1-0 result at BMO Stadium in Concacaf play. 

Inter Miami’s first victory over LAFC came at BMO Stadium in the 2023 regular season, a 3-1 result in which Messi registered two assists. Inter Miami’s second win over LAFC came last year in the second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup Quarterfinals, when Messi & Co. stormed back from a 2-0 aggregate deficit to win 3-2.

LAFC and Inter Miami are each seeking multiple trophies in 2026, including the Concacaf Champions Cup. LAFC opened its CCC campaign with a 6-1 win in Honduras on Tuesday night against Real España. Inter Miami will begin play in the CCC Round of 16 in March against either Nashville SC or Atlético Ottawa.

Built in 1923 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1984, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a living memorial to all who served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War I, and a civic treasure for generations of Angelenos. Located in the Exposition Park neighborhood, next to BMO Stadium, the Coliseum is a 77,500-capacity stadium overflowing with history.

The Coliseum is the only venue to host opening and closing ceremonies for two Summer Olympics (X Olympiad in 1932, XXIII Olympiad in 1984) and soon a third (XXXIV Olympiad in 2028). It has been the home of college football’s USC Trojans since 1923; hosted three NFL Championships and two Super Bowls (I and VII); and welcomed appearances by U.S. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan; and international dignitaries including Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, and Nelson Mandela.  From Mick Jagger to the Harlem Globetrotters, the Grateful Dead to Billy Graham, Evel Knievel to Pele, the Coliseum has been the stage for the best in human endeavor and achievement.

It gains power from one of the 10 largest crowds in MLS history. 

Saturday night’s attendance will not break the record that LAFC set against the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl in 2023 (82,110 spectators); the Coliseum only holds 77,500. But that will be the only shortcoming in an evening powered by stars, off and on the pitch. Saturday night’s showdown at the Coliseum will draw the eyes of the world and the full weight of LAFC’s famed 3252 Supporters Union, and will be one the few matches on Inter Miami’s 2026 schedule without a pro-Herons crowd.

Its offseason reinforcements mesh with the holdovers who won MLS Cup two-and-a-half months ago. 

Gone are two retired icons of the game, midfielder Sergio Busquets and left back Jordi Alba, and taking their places, respectively, are Yannick Bright (long groomed as Busquets’ successor) and Reguilón. Bertarame will share time with the legendary Luis Suarez at striker most of this season—with Suarez providing late danger off the bench. But inbound quality does not always equal results. If Messi can make the newcomers mesh, Inter Miami’s opponents will suffer.