When the final whistle sounded at the end of LAFC’s 3-0 win over defending MLS Cup champions Inter Miami, the top two scorers in MLS over the last three years, Denis Bouanga and Lionel Messi, found one another on the field. Bouanga asked behind his hand if they could swap jerseys so that his son could have Messi’s game-worn pink number 10. Messi promptly obliged and accepted Bouanga’s black and gold number 99 in return.
“This game is always special because of Messi,” Bouanga said later in his rapidly improving English. “We want to beat Miami because Messi is there.
“The mentality was so high for this game,” Bouanga added. “It is high for [every] game, but maybe this game was more high, the mentality.”
RECORD CROWD
The attendance numbers were also high. Only one MLS match in the league’s 30-year history has hosted more spectators than the 75,673 on hand at the Coliseum Saturday night (LAFC vs. Galaxy at the Rose Bowl on July 4, 2023). And Saturday’s match stands alone among opening weekend contests, breaking the record set at Charlotte FC’s 2023 home opener against New England (69,345) by more than 6,000 fans.
In a year that will see the FIFA World Cup come to Los Angeles, it’s also worth noting that no single sporting event in the world this weekend—including Winter Olympics events in Italy and football matches in Europe’s top leagues—attracted more spectators than LAFC vs. Inter Miami. Finishing a close second was the crowd of 75,000 who saw Bayern Munich’s 3-2 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
Messi’s old home, the famed Camp Nou in Barcelona, accommodated 44,936 fans at Barça’s 3-0 win over Levante on Sunday.
LOCKING IN ON LIONEL
Preparing the 102-year-old Coliseum for Saturday night’s match required nearly as much work as LAFC’s preparations to face Messi, the two-time reigning MLS MVP, 2025 Golden Boot winner, and eight-time Ballon d’Or recipient.
“Messi is a very difficult player to prepare for,” LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said in Spanish late Saturday night. “Our group today, collectively, we didn't do man-marking. We did it with numbers, with everyone helping. We knew where we didn't want Messi to have the ball. You don't want Messi [in] centralized areas. When he's running against you, it's a problem. So we made sure to have numbers around him.”
SECOND-HALF ADJUSTMENT
Two-and-a-half months removed from its first MLS Cup title, Inter Miami played like champions after falling behind 1-0 at halftime. “The second half didn't go in the direction that we wanted,” Dos Santos said. “Miami were excellent on the ball. It's a very good team, they keep the ball so well. They try to play those one-twos around the box. In those moments, we felt that even when we won the ball and they had their counter pressure it was very hard for us to come out … That's why we went from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3, to protect the middle a little more.”
“It's good to win like this and to still have so much margin to progress,” Dos Santos continued. “The positive thing is we played Tuesday in Honduras, we flew a long flight, we had one day of training, and we were able to suffer as a team. That quality of being able to suffer as a team, together, is an important quality.”
SON SYNOPSIS
LAFC forward and 2025 MLS Newcomer of the Year finalist Son Heung-Min saw no action in LAFC’s six preseason friendlies. In other words, while his teammates and Inter Miami’s roster had been tuning up for weeks, Saturday’s match was Son’s second real run of 2026. Still, he assisted on LAFC’s first goal and could have had two more assists if not for a slip by Bouanga and the heroic goalkeeping of Inter Miami’s Dayne St. Clair.
“We want to give him the freedom to come in the pockets where he's so good,” Dos Santos said of the South Korean star who will compete in his fourth World Cup this summer. “When he does that, many times he attracts centerbacks and it creates space that other players can attack ... I have to remind everyone that Sonny didn't have a perfect preseason due to injury, and now he's back and we have to manage slowly how he comes back, but the effort he put in the last two games for me was top.”
David Martínez, who opened the scoring thanks to a pass that Son laid into his path in transition, said of Son: “He obviously has an impact. In the locker room, on the field, in practice. We love having him here, and we're definitely going to take advantage of having him here as much as we can.”
THE JEWEL SHINES
Two weeks after his 20th birthday, Martínez – La Joya de Venezuela – made daring attacking runs across the Coliseum turf throughout his 68-minute shift. After arriving at LAFC at age 17, and following two seasons of development, the young forward is thriving in a new role that allows him the freedom to attack centrally or on the flank, or to pick the ball up deep in LAFC’s half.
“This year is going to be more offensive,” Bouanga said of Martínez, “because he plays this position, he likes this position. David Martínez is – we need to push him in the field because his quality [is so] strong, but now he changed the mentality too. Last year is not the same as this year.”
“It's a new year, a beautiful year,” Martínez said in Spanish. “I'm going to take advantage of every opportunity I get, lay it all out there on the field and give the club the best that I can.”
As for the influence Dos Santos, the multilingual head coach who recently got the job after five years as an LAFC assistant, Martínez said, “I've said it before: I'm super appreciative of Marc. Ever since I got here he's always given me advice and talked to me, so I appreciate the opportunities that he gives me, and I'm going to continue to seek him out and chat with him.”
GOAL GUARDIANS
Against an Inter Miami side that led MLS in goals scored in 2025 and was shut out only five times in 40 MLS games (including playoffs), LAFC goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris turned in his first clean sheet of 2026 (and his 34th in an LAFC shirt), thanks in part to the efforts of defenders Eddie Segura, Sergi Palencia, Ryan Porteous, and Man of the Match Nkosi Tafari.
Dos Santos said the shutout was an 11-man effort that included midfielders Mark Delgado, Timmy Tillman, and recently arrived defensive specialist Stephen Eustáquio.
“When we prepared the game, we prepared the game against the best Messi possible … and when you prepare for the best Messi around the box, you have to have numbers around him [and] you have to make sure that you follow the late runs because he finds so well the players in the pocket. Then when he starts running and playing one-twos, you have to follow, you have to continue with your runs. I think that part of our game today, A-plus.”
Segura, who at age 29 just became the Black & Gold’s all-time leader in minutes played across all competitions, added 90 more minutes to his total as the left centerback in what Dos Santos called “this hybrid three center backs, allowing [right wingback] Sergi [Palencia] to get much higher on the field.”
“Eddie, he's such a team player,” Dos Santos said. “Man, he's always ready to help the team, so I'm glad he achieved all those minutes.”
When Dos Santos was asked after the Miami win if he imparts lessons to his team regarding last season’s earlier-than-expected playoff exit, he said, “I don't mention last season. I'm actually talking a lot about what we could become in the future.
“I have a good group of guys. They're good people. They work hard. They have a good mentality. I remember seeing some flashes when we were in preseason in Palm Springs of a lot of togetherness in the group. They stay in the meal room for hours talking and laughing about things. So when you have a group that likes to be together and they know what they have to do on the field, they embrace it ... We're gonna have amazing moments and we're gonna have some tough moments. MLS is not a walk in the park, that everything is Alice in Wonderland, you know. It's hard sometimes, so we have to be ready for both.”
PARTING THOUGHT
Dos Santos: “I think it's mentally important to win, our players feel it. It's important now to enjoy the night, but tomorrow we have training camp, preparation for Real España.”
LAFC holds a 6-1 advantage over the Honduran club on aggregate goals headed into the deciding game of their two-leg Concacaf Champions Cup Round One matchup, with a spot in the Round of 16 on the line. “It’s serious for us,” Dos Santos said. “The tie isn't over and we want to be ready for that match.”
LAFC hosts Real España at BMO Stadium on Tuesday, February 24, at 7:00 p.m. PT, for the second match of their two-leg series in Round One of Concacaf Champions Cup. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com. The match will be broadcast on FS2, TUDN, ConcacafGo, and OneSoccer, with radio coverage on 710 AM ESPN LA, 980 AM La Mera Mera and K-Radio 1230 AM.
Visit the club’s 2026 schedule and season ticket membership pages for more information.
