LAFC vs. Minnesota United - 2025 MLS Season Opener
Saturday, Feb. 22 at 1:30 p.m. PT
🏟: BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA
🖥: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, FOX, FOX Deportes
LAFC is jumping into its ambitious 2025 schedule without much subtlety or time to rest—but with plenty at stake, including an MLS-record winning streak in season debut matches.
The Black & Gold’s second game in a season-opening run of four games in 12 days is its much-anticipated 2025 MLS regular-season opener against Minnesota United, a 2024 playoff team that aims to achieve much more this year.
Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. The match can be watched live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, as well as on FOX and FOX Deportes.
LAFC is coming off a 2-1 defeat to the Colorado Rapids in Concacaf Champions Cup play, which was contested in single-digit weather Tuesday night in Denver. Temperatures are expected to be 70 degrees higher in LA on Saturday when the Black & Gold clashes with the Loons. “I've never played in and I've never been in a place that cold,” defender Sergi Palencia said of the Colorado trip, “but I think the team showed great things.”
“We can't wait to be in front of our fans and feed off their energy,” added midfielder Mark Delgado.
Minnesota has yet to play a non-friendly in 2025. The club played four preseason matches, the most recent of which was a 0-1 result against NYCFC at the Coachella Valley Invitational on Feb. 15.
LOONS LAST YEAR
Last season marked a fresh start for MNUFC, which joined MLS in 2017, one year before LAFC’s first season.
In 2024 the Loons parted ways with the only head coach they had ever known, Adrian Heath, and lured 32-year-old Eric Ramsay away from his assistant coach role with Manchester United. The impact of the youngest coach in MLS was immediate and positive.
Under Ramsay, the Loons went 6W-1L-1D after August 30 and upset higher-seeded Real Salt Lake in Round 1 of the MLS Cup Playoffs before falling to eventual champions LA Galaxy in the Conference Semifinal. The team finished 6th in the Western Conference in 2024 (15W-12L-7D), 12 points behind first-place LAFC (19W-8L-7D).
All-purpose midfielder Robin Lod was named Team MVP by his teammates after recording 22 goal involvements (7 goals, 15 assists) and becoming the Loons’ all-time leading goalscorer (32). Last summer MNUFC added DP striker Kelvin Yeboah from Italy’s Serie A, then watched the 24-year-old Ghanian become one of MLS’ most feared attackers (7 goals in 8 starts, plus 2 goals and an assist in 3 playoff games).
THE SERIES
LAFC holds a 4W-3L-5D advantage in the series, scoring 18 goals to the Loons’ 16.
Last March LAFC fell to Minnesota 2-0 in the Twin Cities behind goals from Lod and Bongokuhle Hlongwane. The Black & Gold won the return match in LA on the strength of a Denis Bouanga penalty and a 30-yard strike from Mateusz Bogusz that was nominated for MLS Goal of the Year.
MNUFC hasn’t won at BMO Stadium since 2019, when it handed LAFC the only home loss in the Black & Gold’s record-breaking regular season, which ended with its first Supporters’ Shield.
BUILT FOR BATTLE
LAFC’s 2025 roster has been constructed to thrive in a congested calendar that could once again reach 50 games across all competitions.
The team’s talisman is Bouanga, the 2023 Golden Boot winner, two-time Best XI selection and perennial MVP candidate who this year can become the first player in MLS history to record three straight 20-goal seasons. His growing relationship with striker Olivier Giroud, a fellow Frenchman and the top goal scorer in the history of France’s national team, will dictate LAFC’s attacking fortunes in 2025.
New midfield personnel joins 2024 starter Timmy Tillman in the form of Delgado, a two-time MLS Cup champion, and 21-year-old Brazilian Igor Jesus, the star of the Black & Gold’s preseason, who arrived in LA last month from Portugal’s Premier League.
Former MLS Defender of the Year Aaron Long will likely wear the captain’s armband for LAFC when he’s on the field. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was an MLS All Star in 2024 and finished second in the league with 12 clean sheets in 33 starts.
Players who’d start most anywhere else will provide LAFC with depth over the long haul, including recent acquisitions Jeremy Ebobisse (60 career goals), Nkosi Tafari (25 starts for Dallas last year), and attacking wingback Yaw Yeboah.
RECORD WINNING STREAK
LAFC has never lost or tied an MLS home opener in seven tries (7W-0L-0T), an MLS record.
LAFC WILL WIN IF
It thaws out following its Colorado adventure and basks in the warmth that only a season opener at BMO Stadium can provide. Maintaining its spotless record in MLS openers is the priority, but the Black & Gold may rotate its roster in order to prepare for the second leg of its Concacaf matchup with the Rapids on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at BMO Stadium.
MNUFC CAN WIN IF
Lod, Hlongwane, and Yeboah find room to operate within an LAFC back line that has been without centerback Maxime Chanot in preseason due to a short-term injury.
The 2025 LAFC Secondary Kit
LAFC’s 2025 Secondary Kit is regal, refined, and designed to be worn by players and supporters who expect success.
