LAFC opened the 30th season of Major League Soccer (MLS) with a 1-0 win over Minnesota United at BMO Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Jeremy Ebobisse, who signed with the club as a free agent in December, scored the only goal of the game in the 78th minute to give LAFC the victory.
LAFC is now 8W-0L-0D all-time in season openers, including a 7W-0L-0D mark at BMO Stadium.
Ebobisse, who joined LAFC after spending the first eight years of his MLS career with the Portland Timbers and San Jose Earthquakes, scored his first goal for the Black & Gold when he collected a short pass from Nathan Ordaz at the top of the box and fired a left-footed shot into the corner of the net, past the dive of Minnesota goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair, to give LAFC the lead.
LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who was second in MLS last season with 12 clean sheets, made two saves on the afternoon to collect his first clean sheet of 2025 and earn the win.
LAFC will return to action on Tuesday, Feb. 25 when the club hosts the Colorado Rapids in the second leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup – Round One series at BMO Stadium. The match will kick off at 7:00 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live on FS2.
The club will return to MLS action next weekend when it hosts New York City FC at 7:30 p.m. PT on Saturday, Mar. 1 at BMO Stadium.
NOTES
- With the win, LAFC is now 8W-0L-0D all-time in season openers as well as W-0L-0D in home openers. The club has opened every MLS season since 2019 at home, going 7W-0L-0D in that time while outscoring opponents 14-4 and keeping four clean sheets, including this afternoon. 
- In 2018, LAFC opened its inaugural season with a 1-0 road win over the Seattle Sounders before beating Seattle by the same 1-0 scoreline nearly two months later in the club’s home opener. 
- LAFC is now 5W-3L-5D all-time against Minnesota in MLS play, including a 5W-1L-1D mark at BMO Stadium. The club has won each of its last four home games against Minnesota, outscoring them 10-1 in that time. 
- Jeremy Ebobisse scored the game’s only goal in his LAFC debut. He is the 10th different player to score for LAFC in a season opener.
- Nathan Ordaz and Denis Bouanga were each credited with assists on the goal. Bouanga has now assisted on the game-winning goal in each of the last three season openers for LAFC while Ordaz now has five assists in his MLS career, recording at least one in each of his three seasons with the club.
- LAFC made three changes from the 2-1 loss to Colorado in the Concacaf Champions Cup on Tuesday night with Ebobisse, Marlon and David MartÃnez getting the start in place of Olivier Giroud, Nathan Ordaz and Eddie Segura, all of whom entered the game as second-half substitutes. 
- In addition to Ebobisse, Mark Delgado and Igor Jesus each started the game, making their LAFC regular-season debuts, while Nkosi Tafari and Yaw Yeboah each came on late in the game to make their debuts for the club. 
- After scoring first an MLS-best 21 times in 2024 and going 18W-2L-1D in those matches, LAFC scored first in this afternoon’s game. 
- LAFC was 20W-3L-5D at home in all competitions in 2024 and is now 1-0-0 at BMO Stadium in 2025. 
- Starting his fourth season as LAFC Head Coach, Steve Cherundolo has now been on the bench for 145 games in all competitions, going 81W-37L-27D in that time, including 55W-27L-21D in the league.
