Sunday, May 24 | 6:25 p.m. PT
🏟 | BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA
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LAFC returns to BMO Stadium on Sunday to host the Seattle Sounders on Pride Night, with a fireworks show following the match. (Details below.)
One of Major League Soccer’s most vibrant rivalries, LAFC and Seattle have faced one another 25 times across all competitions, with the Black & Gold winning 14 of those matches to the Sounders’ seven, and outscoring the Sounders 42-29.
The two clubs enter Sunday's rematch in seventh place (LAFC) and fourth place (SEA) in the Western Conference standings, with both sides enduring a challenging month of May. LAFC boasts the league leader in assists (Son Heung-Min, 9) and clean sheets (Hugo Lloris, 8) while the Sounders have allowed the fewest goals in MLS (10, tied with VAN and NSH) and have lost just one of six road matches thus far (3W-1L-2D).
REST STOP AHEAD
Sunday marks both clubs’ final match before MLS and other leagues around the world take a six-week break for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. LAFC will return to action on July 17 with a derby match at home against the Galaxy.
THE SERIES
Since LAFC joined Major League Soccer in 2018, these two clubs have won more games than anyone else in the Western Conference.
Only the Galaxy has faced LAFC as many times as Seattle, and the stakes are always high when these two titans meet. In one recent 13-month span, the Black & Gold faced the Sounders four times in various knockout rounds, defeating Seattle in the 2023 Western Conference Semifinals, the 2024 Leagues Cup Quarterfinals, and the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Semifinals; and falling to the Sounders in the 2024 Western Conference Semifinals.
That playoff defeat in ’24 ended a ten-game unbeaten streak in the series for the Black & Gold, which went 8W-0L-2D against Seattle between 2021 and 2024.
Seattle’s only other road win in this rivalry came in 2019, a 3-1 result in that year’s Western Conference Final. The last time the Sounders came to BMO, on May 14, 2025, LAFC won 4-0.
SCOUTING SEATTLE
Coached by Brian Schmetzer since 2016, the current Sounders – as usual - are stout defensively and spread their goal-scoring across the whole roster.
Their defending efforts are led by Andrew Thomas, who has supplanted longtime Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei as Schmetzer’s number 1 and has posted five clean sheets in 12 MLS appearances in 2026.
Workhorse winger Paul Rothrock leads the Sounders in goals scored in league play, with four, but that honor could fall to anyone, including LA native and USMNT World Cup hopeful Cristian Roldan (3 goals, 2 assists), Albert Rusnák (3 goals, 4 assists), Jesus Ferreira (2 goals, 5 assists) and Osaze DeRosario (2 goals, one assist).
Defenders Jackson Ragen and Nouhou Tolo lead the team in minutes played among non-goalkeepers.
The Sounders’ 2-0 loss to the Galaxy last weekend ended the club’s nine-match MLS unbeaten run. But the Sounders have won just one of four matches in May, a 3-2 result over second-place San Jose on May 13.
LAFC CAN WIN IF
A rare week of rest and training pays off.
Since April 4, the Black & Gold has grinded out 13 matches across all competitions, most of them on the road, taking the field every weekend and every midweek, averaging one match every 3.38 days. After last Sunday’s 3-2 road defeat in Nashville, however, LAFC finally had time to analyze its current winless run (0W-4L-1D), implement those learnings on the training pitch, and most important, rest.
If this week's refresh pays off against the perennially tough Sounders, the Black & Gold can enter the season’s second half with a renewed belief.
SEATTLE CAN WIN IF
It defends in transition. In last week’s surprising, 2-0 home defeat to the Galaxy, both goals came on lightning-quick attacks through Seattle’s midfield. No MLS club has allowed fewer goals than the 10 Seattle has given up this year; but they’ve conceded half of that total (five) in their last three matches.
An early LAFC goal would turn up the volume inside BMO Stadium, where Seattle has won only twice in 11 tries.
PRIDE CELEBRATION & POSTMATCH FIREWORKS
Sunday night’s fireworks show will begin approximately 10 minutes after the final whistle.
Before and during the match, there’s plenty to enjoy as LAFC celebrates local LGBTQ+ communities:
LAFC Lane - fun partner activations just outside BMO Stadium.
$5 Modelos - wherever Modelo is sold inside BMO Stadium.
Exclusive merchandise in collaboration with
- Line Friends
- Realtree camo gear (Merch of the Week)
National anthem performer Destiny Rogers is a southern California native and award-winning singer-songwriter (@destinyrogers).
Guest DJ Leslie Santos (DJ Lezlee) is an LA-based emcee and on-air mixer who has performed on REAL 92.3 and at Coachella (@djlezlee).
Pac-Man visits Bandai Namco
Celebrate Pac-Man’s 46th birthday by hanging with the iconic video-game character from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Level Up by Bandai Namco, at the southwest corner of BMO Stadium. Enjoy free games, giveaways, and more.
FIFA World Cup 26™ mascots will be on hand at BMO Stadium to meet fans and take photos.
