25 Reasons To Be Excited About LAFC This Season
DAVID MARTÍNEZ
Sometimes a winger, occasionally a striker, always a threat, the Venezuelan teenager injected life into every game he appeared in in 2024. With Mateusz Bogusz moving to Liga MX side Cruz Azul, La Joya (The Jewel) will be called upon to fill the void with his effortless style and flair for finishing.
NEW KIT
LAFC’s new 2025 secondary kit brings back a colorway from the team’s original kit design in 2018, LAFC’s inaugural season. That look has been elevated to fit a mature club with advanced ambitions that has won multiple trophies headed into its eighth year of play. LAFC’s 2025 secondary kit debuts in mid-February.
HUGO PART DEUX
One of the most decorated goalkeepers of his generation, World Cup champion Hugo Lloris enters 2024 with a full season of MLS play under his belt and a deeper knowledge of his opponents and their attacking habits. Lloris shined as an MLS rookie in ’24, earning a trip to the All Star game and compiling 12 clean sheets (second in the league) and his first assist in ten years.
SAN DIEGO FC
MLS’ newest expansion team will play just two hours south of BMO Stadium by car, adding a second southern California rivalry to the Black & Gold’s annual schedule. The teams will meet for the first time on March 29, when LAFC visits San Diego (Steve Cherundolo’s hometown). LAFC hosts the newcomers (including high-profile signing Chucky Lozano) at BMO Stadium on August 31.
TWO DERBIES
The defending MLS champion Galaxy finished their 2024 season in a higher position than LAFC, something that had only happened once before. (The Galaxy finished eighth in the West in 2021 and LAFC ninth.) How will LAFC respond to the Carson club’s rise? The Black & Gold visits its Southland rivals on May 18 and welcomes the Galaxy to the Heart of LA on July 19.
DENIS BOUANGA
Called “one of the most terrifying open-field players in league history” by MLS analyst Matthew Doyle, Denis Bouanga has shined brightly during his two-and-a-half seasons in Los Angeles. A year after he won MLS’ Golden Boot in ‘23, the fleet-footed winger’s 20 goals in ’24 tied for 2nd-most in the league, and he hit double digits in assists (11) for the first time in his 10-year pro career, making him one of just two MLS players to record 20 goals and 10 assists last year. (The other was Lionel Messi.) This year #99 can become not only the first player in league history to amass three 20-goal seasons, but the first to do it in three consecutive years.
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP
LAFC's opening matchup in the most significant tournament in this region of the world consists of a road contest on Feb. 18 against the Colorado Rapids, and a rematch at home on Feb. 25. Concacaf Champions Cup (formerly Concacaf Champions League), now in its 60th year, welcomes 27 of the strongest clubs in Central America, North America, and the Caribbean. The 2025 champion, which will be crowned on June 1, will receive a berth in the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and 2029 FIFA Club World Cup. LAFC advanced to the final in its two previous Concacaf appearances, in 2020 and 2023.
3252
Here since the club’s inception in 2014, The 3252 Independent Supporters’ Union—named for the seating capacity of its section of BMO Stadium—enters its second decade as the loudest and most passionate fan contingent in Major League Soccer. Comprised of nine disparate yet unified supporters’ groups from across southern California, The 3252 gets serenaded by LAFC’s players following every home win, travels to support the team against opponents here and abroad, and in the words of LAFC defender Aaron Long, “never lets up.”
8 IN 8? 🏆
The Black & Gold currently has six trophies in its case (an MLS Cup, two Supporters’ Shields, two Western Conference Championships, and the ’24 U.S. Open Cup). Up for grabs in 2025, in chronological order: Concacaf Champions Cup, Leagues Cup, the Supporters’ Shield, and MLS Cup. (Not to mention LAFC2’s quest to defend the senior team’s U.S. Open Cup title.) All of which is to say: the club has a chance to raise its eighth trophy this year, in its eighth season of play.
JEREMY JOINS
LAFC’s first signing this offseason, 27-year-old forward Jeremy Ebobisse, has scored 60 regular-season goals in his MLS career, including six against LAFC. One of the Western Conference’s savviest goal scorers over the last half-decade, the swift Washington, D.C., native now joins what he calls “a club that was no fun to play against.”
THE CHERUNDOLO STANDARD
Since becoming LAFC’s head coach three years ago, southern California native Steve Cherundolo has led the Black & Gold to two Western Conference championships, a Supporters’ Shield, an MLS Cup title, and a U.S. Open Cup trophy. The only coach in MLS history to guide a team to the Concacaf Final and MLS Cup Final in the same year, Cherundolo owns a 54-27-21 record (W-L-T) in MLS regular-season play and an 8-3-1 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
NEW FACES IN THE MIDDLE
A trio of exciting new midfielders has joined LAFC in the last few weeks, including MLS veteran, Mark Delgado, who has won two MLS Cups, and Odin Thiago Holm, “a supremely talented and technically gifted” Norwegian (as LAFC Co-President and GM John Thorrington called him) who at 22 has already competed in two of Europe’s top leagues. Defensive midfielder Igor Jesus, 21, brings field vision and vast potential with him from Portugal’s top tier, Primeira Liga.
BMO STADIUM
A multi-purpose edifice and LAFC’s home in the Heart of LA, BMO Stadium was recently recognized by Pollstar as the #14 stadium in the world (and #6 in the U.S.) based on concert sales, with more than 1.2 million tickets sold for soccer matches, concerts, and other events in 2024. BMO Stadium was also ranked among Billboard’s Top 10 Touring Stadiums in the U.S., and was recently named a finalist at the 2025 Sports Business Journal Tech Awards in the Best Technology Collaboration category.
DENTING NETS AND HUNTING TROPHIES
LAFC ranks first in MLS in regular-season wins, goals, and total points since it entered the league in 2018, and is seeking its seventh playoff bid in eight years and its fourth straight trip to the Western Conference Semifinals. (No other MLS club has reached the last three conference semifinals.) Committed to playing attacking, creative soccer, LAFC has finished among the Top 9 teams in goals scored in MLS in each of its seven seasons, and has been among the Top 2 teams four times. The Black & Gold has reached two of the last three MLS Cup Finals, winning one.
JUDE TERRY
Recognized as one of the top talents in the United States Youth National Team program, 16-year-old midfielder Jude Terry helped lead the U.S. to the 2023 Concacaf U-15 Championship and is part of the U-17 side that’s prepping for the upcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup Qualifiers. This offseason, Terry, an LAFC Academy product from Chula Vista, Calif., (five minutes from the Mexican border), signed a Homegrown contract with LAFC, and while
BOLSTERED BACK LINE
Native New Yorker and veteran defender Nkosi Tafari (above; left), 27, whose speed and field coverage were coveted by several MLS suitors this offseason, joins LAFC from FC Dallas. Ghanaian international and all-purpose wing Yaw Yeboah (above right), who broke Black & Gold hearts with his game-changing performance in the ’23 MLS Cup Final, arrives in LA after a trophy-filled three-year run with the Columbus Crew.
LAFC2
The next generation of LAFC players play at LAFC2, the club’s developmental squad in second-tier league MLS NEXT Pro. LAFC2 is coming off its first ever playoff season and is looking to make a deeper postseason run in 2025 behind a roster that includes several LAFC Academy alumni, including Jude Terry (see above), forward (and 2024 leading scorer) Adrian Wibowo, and 18-year-old fullback Luca Bombino—who like Terry has featured prominently with the United States’ Youth National teams. All LAFC2 home games are played at Titan Stadium on the campus of Cal State Fullerton and are broadcast live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
LORENZO’S RETURN
Lorenzo Dellavalle, a centerback and Giorgio Chiellini protégé who doesn’t turn 21 until April, led Italy to the U-19 UEFA Euros title in ‘23 and was poised for a breakout season with LAFC in ‘24 before he was sidetracked by a knee injury. Now the Carmagnola, Italy, native is back, fully recovered and ready to add his physical defending style to a back line that said goodbye longtime starter Jesús Murillo this offseason.
LEAGUES CUP
This year the annual mid-summer clash between Liga MX and MLS will have a new format. Until 2025, the tournament included every MLS team (29) and every Liga MX team (19). Now MLS will contribute 18 teams to match the 18 clubs currently in Mexico’s top league. LAFC made it to the Leagues Cup Quarterfinals in 2023 and all the way to the Final in ‘24. The next step awaits.
LA STRONG
The Greater Los Angeles Community was brought to its knees by the recent fires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and elsewhere, and LAFC’s outreach has been impactful and ongoing. Rooted in the LA community and committed since its inception to being a force for good in the city, LAFC will donate a portion of match proceeds in 2025 to supporting ongoing fire relief and recovery efforts—a humble contribution to a city determined to regroup, recover and rebuild.
LOCK-DOWN D
LAFC returns six defenders from one of the best defensive rotations in the league last season – Ryan Hollingshead, Aaron Long, Maxime Chanot, Sergi Palencia, Eddie Segura, and Marlon. Long, a SoCal native and former MLS Defender of the Year who recently re-signed with LAFC through 2027, led his fellow defenders to a club record last year by holding opponents scoreless for 644 straight minutes during the team’s 13-game unbeaten streak (also a club record).
OLIVIER GIROUD
Among its many gifts, the 2025 season presents an opportunity to watch a legend of modern soccer ply his trade over the course of a full season. Olivier Giroud joined LAFC from AC Milan at midyear in ’24 and scored goals in both of LAFC’s finals appearances (Leagues Cup and U.S. Open Cup). Now, with a full preseason to prepare himself and mesh with his teammates, expectations for France’s all-time leading scorer are as high as MLS goalkeepers’ anxiety.
TIMMY TILLMAN
Classy and calm yet relentless, do-it-all midfielder Timmy Tillman seems to raise his level each time he takes the field for LAFC. Tillman, a willing tackler and inventive attacker who arrived in LA in early 2023, was called in to U.S. Men’s National Team training camp last year. The German-born U.S. citizen has tallied four goals and eight assists over 49 MLS regular-season starts, and is the club’s most experienced returning midfielder.
RAVE GREEN RIVALRY
Every year since 2018, as summer turns to fall and high-pressure knockout matches start popping up on the calendar, LAFC and the Seattle Sounders prepare to do battle. Two regular-season matchups will rekindle these clubs’ respectful animosity for one another – on March 8 in Seattle and on May 14 in LA. The Sounders have added key pieces to their attack this offseason, while LAFC has a new source of motivation—revenge. After going unbeaten against the Sounders over 10 straight matches, LAFC was eliminated by Seattle from last year’s MLS Cup playoffs.
WORLD CUP RAMP-UP
LAFC’s 2025 season also represents a countdown to 2026, when Los Angeles will host the United States’ first match of FIFA World Cup 2026, a Group Stage fixture on June 12, 2026, at SoFi Stadium. The city will host eight World Cup matches in all. LAFC Co-President and Chief Business Officer Larry Freedman, who also serves as Co-Chair of the LA World Cup Host Committee, recently called the match that’s just 16 months away: “another transformative moment for soccer in the USA as the eyes of the world fall on Los Angeles.”
LAFC begins its 2025 season on the road against the Colorado Rapids in Concacaf Champions Cup action on Feb. 18. The Black & Gold opens MLS regular-season play on Feb. 22 against Minnesota United at BMO Stadium. Season ticket information. Single-game ticket info.
