LAFC vs. Inter Miami: Denis Bouanga, Son Heung-min help spoil Lionel Messi show with 3-0 rout in season opener
LOS ANGELES — On a night when the visitors were seemingly the main attraction, the home team stepped up to defend its turf. Even though it wasn’t actually its home turf.
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 75,673 fans inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It was the second-highest attended MLS match ever.
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This was a very on-brand win over Inter Miami, because that’s what LAFC does. David Martínez scored the opener in the 38th minute, 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.
“We need to push [Martínez] in the field because he has strong quality, but now he has a changed mentality, too,” Denis Bouanga said postmatch. “Last year is not the same to this year, and he knows.”
Bouanga himself added another goal 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 and into the net.
Then it was Nathan Ordaz who stepped up in stoppage time to pound in the dagger and send the visitors home deflated.
This wasn’t a normal LAFC home opener. MLS dragged the game out of LAFC’s 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.
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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.
And of course, Messi was Messi. Every touch got a reaction. Every drift inside felt like it might end someone’s evening. Inter Miami looked exactly like a team that knows the season is long and the World Cup clock is already ticking.
LAFC did not care.
“[Inter Miami] put us [under] a lot of pressure, but we defended really well,” LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said. “I don’t think we conceded big chances. There were these half-chances, but overall … I think that part of our game today, A+. The part of possession, B. We can be much better, and we want to be much better, but our guys were a team.”
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The Black and Gold proved it by staying compact. They stayed patient. And when the opening came, Son slipped Martínez through, and Martínez finished like the script wasn’t his responsibility. Bouanga met the moment with finesse before Ordaz unleashed a finishing move to cap the win.
LAFC did what it does: absorb, disrupt, frustrate. Miami had the ball. Messi had moments. The goals never came.
So the season began in a stadium that’s hosted Olympics, Super Bowls and just about everything else. But on this night, the league’s biggest attraction still got upstaged.
Welcome back, MLS.
Here’s how the action unfolded in real time:
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That’s a wrap from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
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Nathan Ordaz adds another one and this has turned into a rout. A clear cut win in every way for the home side.
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Attendance is 75,673, the most attended opening weekend match in MLS history and the second highest attendance of any match all time.
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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.
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Berterame gets his best chance of the night with a wide open shot mere feet away from Lloris but sends it wide right instead.
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Depaul’s cross finds Berterame in the box, however, Porteous dives in front of it to send it out of bounds with a dangerous header.
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The second half is underway!
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Armando Botello II
The opener may have been meant to be 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?
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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.
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On nearly the exact same set up, Bouanga finds a streaking Martinez for a 1-on-1, only this time Martinez’s curler goes just wide of the far post. LAFC nearly took a two-goal lead into halftime.
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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.
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It’s Bouanga again sending in a stealth cross right in front of St. Clair, but Martinez can’t get his foot on it.
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Bouanga again slices through the Miami defense with a pass to Tilman inside the box. Tilman’s goal opportunity was quickly nixed, however, as Falcon slid in front of it and deflected it out.
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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,
