Sunday, May 18 | 6 p.m. PT
🏟 | Dignity Health Sports Park - Carson, CA
Starting this weekend, Xfinity customers can enjoy all the action of Sunday Night Soccer on MLS Season Pass free, with no additional subscriptions required. The weekly matches will be available within the channel guide on Xfinity X1 and the Xfinity Stream app throughout the duration of the season. Xfinity currently offers free access to MLS 360 for all Xfinity customers and integrates every MLS Season Pass match into the channel guide on X1 and the Stream app.
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Unbeaten in its last six matches, Los Angeles Football Club heads south to Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif., on Sunday to face the Galaxy in the 25th installment of what Major League Soccer calls its “biggest rivalry.”
This prime-time Sunday Night Soccer matchup will be the second of LAFC’s two MLS Rivalry Week fixtures, including its 4-0 defeat of the Seattle Sounders Wednesday night at BMO Stadium. LAFC, which hasn’t lost an MLS match since April 5, stands at 6W-4L-3D on the season, with 21 points from 13 games, good for fifth place in the Western Conference.
The Galaxy, meanwhile, have gotten off to a slow start after their MLS Cup championship season in 2024, going winless over their first 13 games with an MLS record of 0W-10L-3D and a goal differential of minus-21. Currently in 15th place in the 15-team Western Conference, the Galaxy lost 3-2 to the Philadelphia Union on the road Wednesday night.
RIVALRY IN REVIEW
The emotion surrounding the SoCal derby is difficult to quantify without first telling its story.
These two clubs first met in 2018, at the same stadium where they’ll collide on Sunday. In that inaugural match, LAFC—an expansion team playing just the third match in its history—jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the five-time MLS Cup champions before Zlatan Ibrahimović, making his MLS debut after a storied career in Europe, hit a 40-yard equalizer in the 77th minute, then headed home the matchwinner in stoppage time to cap one of the most unforgettable regular-season matches in MLS history.
The defeat stung LAFC and its supporters, but the energy it generated on both sides is the raw material of which football’s most intense rivalries are forged. The feud that was born seven years ago has since matured into something deeper. As ESPN.com’s Kyle Bonagura wrote in 2023, “This is a fight for the hearts and minds of the people of LA.”
ENSUING CHAPTERS
After losing that epic first match, another defeat and three draws followed for LAFC until the Black & Gold finally found vengeance in the 2019 MLS Cup playoffs, defeating the Galaxy in Los Angeles, 5-3, with Black & Gold legend Carlos Vela trading goals with Ibrahimović like two heavyweight boxers. It was LAFC’s first ever win in the series, and it came when the stakes were highest, providing both a breakthrough and a catharsis that Black & Gold supporters still revel in six years later.
More victories followed, including LAFC’s 3-2 triumph in the 2022 Western Conference Semifinal, when Chicho Arango (currently with San Jose) scored the matchwinner in stoppage time and climbed into the stands to celebrate. Two weeks later LAFC was crowned MLS Cup champions.
Despite these successes, LAFC had never won on the Galaxy’s home turf in Carson until April 16, 2023, when the Black & Gold faithful filled Dignity Health Sports Park and propelled their hero, Vela, toward two goals and an assist in LAFC’s 3-2 win.
The final goal of that match was scored in the 84th minute by a current LAFC midfielder wearing Galaxy colors.
MARK MAKES HISTORY
Over the rivalry’s first seven years, four players went on to wear a Galaxy shirt after first playing for LAFC. No player has ever suited up for LAFC in this derby after first playing for the Galaxy. That will change this weekend, when midfielder Mark Delgado will don the Black & Gold inside the stadium he called home for the last three years. The Glendora, Calif., native appeared in 91 matches for the Galaxy between 2022 and 2024, recording five regular-season goals and 14 assists, and lifting last season’s MLS Cup.
DENIS’ DERBY
Vela is the all-time leading goal scorer in this series, with 12 goals. Ibrahimović is second with nine. The man in third place will take the pitch on Sunday wearing the same black kit as Delgado.
Denis Bouanga has scored seven goals against the Galaxy in seven career derby matches (all competitions) including goals in each of their last four meetings.
Over the last month Bouanga has rediscovered the form that brought him the 2023 MLS Golden Boot and MLS All Star and Best XI recognition the last two seasons. The French-born winger, who plays internationally for 2026 World Cup hopefuls Gabon, has scored six goals in his last six appearances. Overall, Bouanga has amassed 68 goal contributions in just 82 regular-season games for LAFC, leaving him just one shy of Diego Rossi (currently with Columbus) for the second-most goal contributions in club history.
NUMBERS GAME
With a win on Sunday, LAFC would tie the all-time series with the Galaxy for just the third time ever. LAFC is currently 9W-10L-5D against its southern neighbor in all competitions. LAFC has never led the series.
LAFC has finished higher than the Galaxy in the Western Conference standings six times in seven seasons. The only exception was 2021, when the Galaxy finished eighth and LAFC ninth.
Last year LAFC went 2W-1L-0D against the Galaxy and was the only club with a winning record against the 2024 MLS Cup champions.
LAFC and the Galaxy shattered the single-game MLS attendance record on July 4, 2023, when 82,110 fans watched the Galaxy earn a 2-1 result at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Charlotte FC set the previous record in 2022 when 74,479 fans witnessed its debut match at Bank of America Stadium.
LAFC has won three of the last four meetings in this rivalry, and six of the last nine (6W-3L-0D).
GALAXY CAN WIN IF
Former LAFC striker Christian Ramirez sneaks unmarked into dangerous areas. The Galaxy’s leading scorer this season (four goals), Ramirez, who scored six times in 24 appearances for the Black & Gold in 2018 and 2019, has a knack for getting on the end of balls served into the area and for punching in uncleared rebounds. Although the Galaxy have scored just 10 goals in 13 games this year, the third-lowest total in MLS, Ramirez’s gifts as a poacher are not to be ignored.
LAFC CAN WIN IF
It takes its limping rival seriously. The old adage about win-loss records being irrelevant in rivalry matches holds true in this derby. Over the course of their 24 meetings, both of these clubs have experienced the heartache of coming in as a favorite and walking off wearing defeat.
That said, if the LAFC attack that has produced eight goals in its last three matches (through six different scorers) sustains its rhythm, and if LAFC’s defending, which has allowed just eight shots on goal over the last three games, holds its form, three valuable road points can be carried home to Los Angeles.
