On Thursday Major League Soccer released regular-season schedules for all 30 of its teams. That’s the first thing to know: the league now has 30 teams with the addition of LAFC’s southern neighbors, San Diego FC. Another important item is that all 510 regular-season games will be broadcast on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
For those faithful to LAFC, a few of the Black & Gold’s 34 league fixtures stand out. As you organize your 2025 calendar, circle the following in black and gold ink.
1. February = Friendlies & Ferocity
LAFC will play its first football of 2025 at the Coachella Valley Invitational, an annual preseason gathering near Palm Springs full of sun-soaked friendlies and training sessions. LAFC will play one match in Coachella—against the Chicago Fire on Wed. Feb. 5.
The laid-back desert vibe will disappear by the time LAFC travels to Colorado on February 18 for the first of its two Round One matches against the Rapids in Concacaf Champions Cup. That match arrives four days ahead of LAFC’s regular-season opener at home on Feb. 22 against Minnesota United FC. The Loons, like LAFC, reached the Western Conference Semifinals last season.
2. League Play Underway
After the home opener against the Loons on Feb. 22, LAFC welcomes the Colorado Rapids to town on Feb. 25, for the second and final leg of their Round 1 Concacaf matchup, with the aggregate winner facing the Columbus Crew in the Round of 16 in early March.
LAFC’s March schedule also includes two high-end rivalry matches on the road – one against the Seattle Sounders on March 8 (in a rematch of the last two Western Conference Semifinals), and the other against expansion club San Diego FC on March 29 at Snapdragon Stadium.
LAFC knows the Sounders well. San Diego FC, meanwhile, entered MLS with a bang by acquiring Mexican National team star Chucky Lozano from PSV Eindhoven (the Dutch top tier) this summer. Last week San Diego added veteran center back Andres Reyes, who starred last season for MLS Cup finalists New York Red Bulls.
San Diego FC, which debuted their inaugural uniforms this week, will visit BMO Stadium for the rematch against LAFC on August 31.
3. Rivalries Galore
LAFC’s increasingly tense series with the Sounders resumes at BMO Stadium on May 14. Four days later, LAFC visits the defending MLS Cup champions, LA Galaxy, in Carson (May 18).
Unlike 2023 and 2024, this season will not feature a third regular-season derby matchup between LAFC and the Galaxy. The two southern California rivals played one another three times in regular-season play in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024. The last two seasons they played in front of sellout crowds at the Rose Bowl, including the largest attendance figure in MLS history (82,000-plus in 2023).
LAFC won two of the three derby matches in both 2023 and 2024.
This year LAFC hosts its second and final regular-season match against the Galaxy, on July 19, 2025, at BMO Stadium.
4. Leagues Cup Shifts Gears
In previous versions of Leagues Cup, the annual tournament that features every club in MLS and LIGA MX, both leagues paused their regular seasons to compete in the annual Concacaf-sanctioned competition. That won’t happen this year.
MLS play will continue uninterrupted through the summer of 2025, with Leagues Cup matches sprinkled into the MLS schedule in much the same way that Concacaf Champions Cup and UEFA Champions League fixtures are.
5. Best in the West Part III?
LAFC will face each team in the Western Conference twice (28 total games) as it seeks to finish atop the conference standings for the fourth time in its eight-year-history.
Some clubs in the West have undergone notable changes this offseason. Houston, for example, which LAFC faces on April 5 (home) and May 3 (away), recently declined roster options for MLS veterans Héctor Herrera, Brad Smith, Latif Blessing, Steve Clark, and Daniel Steres. (Rosters have not been finalized and some players may return.)
San Jose (which visits LAFC on April 12 and which hosts LAFC on Sept. 13) just acquired former LAFC Original Mark Anthony-Kaye in a trade from New England. Kaye played for LAFC from 2018 to 2021.
6. Eastern Philosophy
In 2025, every MLS club will play six out-of-conference matches in the regular season.
LAFC’s Eastern Conference foes in 2025 include the Chicago Fire, which hosts LAFC on August 9 in a match that will mark LAFC’s third trip to the Windy City since 2018. Side note: Chicago just signed former Philadelphia Union defender Jack Elliott, who scored twice against LAFC in the Black & Gold’s victory over the Union in the 2022 MLS Cup Final.
LAFC renews its longest-running Eastern Conference rivalry with a home match against Atlanta United on October 5 at BMO Stadium. It will be the two clubs’ sixth meeting, and their third over the last three seasons.
LAFC makes its first-ever trip to CF Montréal on May 24, and its first trip to New England to face the Revolution, on August 16.
LAFC opens its 2025 MLS regular season at home against Minnesota United on Feb. 22, at 1:30 p.m. PT. The Black & Gold will face the Colorado Rapids in Concacaf Champions Cup action on Feb. 25. Ticket information for all matches will be available soon.
