The 2026 Major League Soccer season has kicked off and is headed into its fourth week. Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF come into the season as reigning MLS Cup champions.
On opening match of the season, Inter Miami played their match against Los Angeles FC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with an attendance of 75,673 making it the highest attended season opener in MLS history and the second highest attended match in the league’s history.
The result of the match had LAFC defeating the reigning MLS champions with a score of 3-0.
The first goal was scored by LAFC’s forward David Martinez in the 38th minute.
Later at the 73rd minute, LAFC’s forward Denis Bouanga doubled the lead to make it 2-0.
At the 90th minute with four minutes of stoppage time LAFC’s forward Nathan Ordaz as he made it 3-0 to end the match.
This match shocked many fans as coming to the game. Inter Miami had better odds of winning the game (+400 to +450) while LAFC had an overall odd of +500 to +600.
According to ESPN’s MLS power rankings after match day three into the MLS season, LAFC ranks first.
The obvious team that looks strong so far in the season is LAFC as they have won their first two matches against Miami 3-0 and against Houston Dynamo with a score of 2-0.
The Portland Timbers are the team who is underperforming as they were previously ranked 9th in the power rankings and dropped to 20th after losing their last match against the Colorado Rapids.
Even though it is too early to predict who will win the MLS cup as of match day three, LAFC looks like the favorites to win the title, but there are a lot of games to go in the season.
As the 2026 season continues, there is a scheduling conflict with the World Cup being played in the summer in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The World Cup is set to kickoff in the summer with the opening match being played on June 11 in Mexico as the co-host Mexico takes on South Africa.
With the World Cup being played during the MLS season, it might be a problem for most of the players in the league as they prepare for the big tournament coming to North America.
It is a big deal for the league whether they should keep the league in play during that time or if they should have the season go on break so that most teams in the league will not have a disadvantage of their best players during that time of play as they represent their national teams on the world stage this summer.
Overall, the season will be exciting as the MLS and the World Cup will be played at the same time this year.
May the best team win it all.
