Friday, July 17 | 7:25 p.m. PT
🏟 | Dignity Health Sports Park - Carson, CA
🖥 | WATCH: Apple TV , FOX, FOX Deportes | Coupang Play (Korea), SpoTV (Korea), Local Bar Partners
📻 | LISTEN: 710 AM ESPN, ESPN LA App, SiriusXM FC 157 KFWB 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish), & KYPA 1230 AM (Korean)
Following its eight-week break for the FIFA World Cup, LAFC returns to MLS regular-season play with a visit to Carson to take on its rivals the Galaxy on Friday night, July 17. The matchup is the highest-profile rivalry match among the five that MLS is presenting on July 16 and 17, as the North American top-tier league picks up where North America’s World Cup is leaving off.
Four LAFC players - more than any other MLS club - participated in the FIFA World Cup, which began on June 11 and culminates in the World Cup Final this Sunday, July 19. Son Heung-Min captained South Korea while Jacob Shaffelburg, Mathieu Choinière, and Stephen Eustáquio (on loan from Porto FC) played for Canada during its deepest-ever World Cup run, reaching the Round of 16. The Galaxy had no players participate in the FIFA World Cup.
“I think it's perfect timing to put Rivalry Week right now,” said Shaffelburg (pictured below with Artem Smoliakov). “These games on Friday with the World Cup Final on Sunday, I'm sure there are a lot of casual fans out there who've been loving the games every day for the World Cup and they'll be looking for games to watch leading up to the World Cup Final. To have those amazing games like the rivalry week right now is really good planning, I'll say, from MLS. I think it's really gonna help the momentum going into the World Cup Final weekend.”
GLOBAL REACH
LAFC vs. Galaxy, sometimes referred to as El Trafico – a name that mixes the Spanish term for rivalry (El Clásico) with Los Angeles’ notorious auto congestion – is the MLS derby match that star players around the world have all heard of.
Football fans in Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia have tuned in for almost a decade to the star-studded matchup that has featured the likes of Hugo Lloris, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Carlos Vela, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, Olivier Giroud, and Marco Reus. One global icon who has yet to taste El Trafico yet is Son, the Korean forward who joined LAFC 11 months ago and currently leads MLS in assists.
HIGHER GROUND
A year ago when these two clubs met, LAFC was privately finalizing its deal to bring Son to LA from the English Premier League. Since his arrival on August 6, 2025, Son has recorded 25 goal contributions (12 goals, 13 assists) in just 26 MLS appearances, including playoffs. He led all players in assists at this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup (seven assists in eight games) and added two goals as well.
“We’re happy to get Sonny, Shaff, Mathieu all back," LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said. "They're happy to be back. They missed it here also. They needed a break. Sonny needed a break after the World Cup. I gave Matt and Shaff also a little break, but they all feel good. They all feel energized, and they're all gonna be in the game against the Galaxy.”
Former France captain Lloris has been dominant in MLS this year, leading the league in clean sheets with eight (8). The next-closest goalkeeper has five (5).
Lloris trained at the LAFC’s Liquid I.V. Performance Center throughout the latter half of the World Cup, along with 20-year-old breakout star Davíd Martínez (nine goals in 2026 in all comps), center backs Nkosi Tafari and Ryan Porteous, and about 15-20 others.
Last month Martínez and Porteous earned Best XI honors in Concacaf Champions Cup, along with Choinière. Martínez won the tournament’s Best Young Player award.
DENIS’ DERBY
Denis Bouanga has scored ten goals in nine career matches against the Galaxy across all competitions and has scored in each of their last six meetings, the longest such streak in the rivalry’s history. Bouanga’s brace against the Galaxy last July moved him past former Galaxy striker and current FOX World Cup analyst Zlatan Ibrahimović and into second place on the derby’s all-time goal scorers list. Only LAFC legend Carlos Vela has scored more goals in this series (12).
FORM CHECK
LAFC enters Friday night’s match in fifth place in the MLS Western Conference standings (7W-5L-3D) while the Galaxy stand in ninth place (5W-5L-5D). The Carson-based side posted a 2W-1L-2D record in May right before the World Cup began.
Since then, the Galaxy’s roster has changed, with top goal scorer Gabriel Pec moving to Brazilian club Cruzeiro, and defender Mauricio Cuevas transferring to Liga MX side Santos Laguna. Forward Matheus Nascimento also departed after the expiration of his loan from Brazil. Nascimento’s absence, along with the recent injury suffered by striker Joao Klauss, left the Galaxy with a bit of a hole at the number 9 position. They filled it this week by signing free-agent forward Robert Taylor through the end of the 2026 season. The Finnish international most recently played with Austin FC. Prior to that, during three-plus seasons with Inter Miami (2022-25), Taylor tallied 18 goals and 18 assists.
LAFC WILL WIN IF
It negates Reus and Joseph Paintsil. With Pec gone, the Galaxy’s attack falls heavily on the shoulders of Reus, the midfield captain and former Bundesliga MVP, and Paintsil, the pacy Ghanaian winger. Paintsil has scored 23 regular-season goals for the Galaxy since joining in 2024, but has yet to score in El Trafico.
If an LAFC defensive unit that began the year with a league-record six straight clean sheets wants to get off on a similar foot to start the second half, they'll need to mind these two.
GALAXY CAN WIN IF
Their midfield congests the LAFC attack. In their two most recent matches against the Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamo (on May 16 and 23), midfielders Edwin Cerrillo, Erik Thommy, and Elijah Wynder controlled the center of the park effectively, allowing just nine total shots on target to claim four of six available points. Cerrillo is the defensive stopper. Lucas Sanabria often comes on in relief to provide attacking punch.
LAFC’s Mark Delgado and Timmy Tillman will look to work with Choinière, fresh off the World Cup, to win this battle.
