LAFC’s Dominant Start to 2026 Season Fueled by Tactical Flexibility and Balanced Attack
Any objective observer would conclude that Marc Dos Santos’ tenure as the third head coach in LAFC history has been, for lack of a better word, a success. LAFC remains unbeaten so far in 2026, with a record of 7 wins, 0 losses, and 1 draw in all competitions—3 wins, 0 losses, and 1 draw in the CONCACAF Champions Cup and 4 wins and 0 losses in MLS.
Tactical Influence and Team Dominance
LAFC has trailed for a total of 59 minutes out of a possible 720 this year—playing from behind during a 12-minute span at home against Alajuelense and for 47 minutes in the second leg earlier this week. Forward Nathan Ordaz credits Dos Santos with establishing a clear playing style. “He’s been great. He has set the team up how he wants to play and I suppose we’re playing like that. We’re dominating teams. We’re moving them around, we’re taking control of games. That’s what we set out to do. That’s what we were working on all preseason.”
Notable Firsts for LAFC in 2026
- LAFC is the only club in MLS to open the season with four consecutive league wins, all by shutout.
- This is the first LAFC team to open a season with four consecutive regular-season wins.
- No other LAFC team has started a season unbeaten over eight matches across all competitions.
- This 2026 LAFC side is just the fourth team in MLS history to record a shutout in each of its first four games (St. Louis City SC in 2025, Vancouver Whitecaps FC in 2012, and New York Red Bulls in 2007).
LAFC’s Best Starts – All Competitions
| Year | Record |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 7W-0L-1D |
| 2019 | 6W-1L-1D |
| 2022 | 6W-1L-1D |
| 2023 | 5W-0L-3D |
A Hard-Fought Victory Over Alajuelense
LAFC’s 3-2 aggregate goals victory over Alajuelense strengthened the team. “This was hard,” Dos Santos said after the final whistle in Alajuela. “We are going to be better in the future because we played in this tie.” The Black & Gold’s Concacaf journey continues with two legs against Mexican giants Cruz Azul in mid-April. LAFC has scored in nine consecutive CCC away matches, tying the longest such streak by an MLS club in the modern era (D.C. United, 2009–2015).
Balanced Attack and Key Contributors
Most of the 18 goals LAFC has scored in all competitions have involved DP forward Son Heung-Min, who has seven assists. In four MLS appearances, Son has already equaled his regular-season assist total from last year—three—which he achieved over 10 appearances in 2025. His three assists in 2026 are tied for second place in MLS, and his four assists in CCC play are second-most in that competition.
Thirteen-year MLS veteran Mark Delgado has posted three assists in all competitions this year, including two in the series-clinching win over Alajuelense.
Goals Scored – LAFC (2026)
| PLAYER | MLS | CCC | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bouanga | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Martínez | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Choinière | 2 | 2 | |
| Ordaz | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Son | 1 | 1 | |
| Delgado | 1 | 1 | |
| Tillman | 1 | 1 | |
| Eustáquio | 1 | 1 | |
| Tafari | 1 | 1 |
In just eight appearances and 393 minutes, Martínez, the 20-year-old prodigy from Venezuela, has already tallied four goals in 2026, two shy of the career-high six he scored last year in 37 appearances (1,694 minutes).
Dos Santos on Team Balance
“I love Sonny, I love Denis,” Dos Santos said of his top two goal scorers from 2025. “These players are not only my players. I care about them outside the field, in their life and all that. But for me as a coach, my concern is the team. How do we win, and how do we win collectively? When we have different guys scoring and we’re not relying only on one or two, it helps the team. Just imagine if we’re relying on one or two guys and one goes to the national team, the other, knock on wood, gets injured, and now what do we do? So as a coach I have to think about the team, the team, the team. That’s the important part for me, and the guys that are maybe a little bit dry in the scoring sheet, this is going to unlock and soon they’re going to start scoring again. This is how the game goes, it’s by waves.”
Ordaz, the 22-year-old LAFC Academy product, added: “I think it’s a lot easier for everybody to get in that final third with our play style now. The whole team pushes up, the whole team is as one, attacking. So there’s a lot more opportunity for everybody to play their role, to score … That just shows that we’re just setting the team up to win.”
Statistical Trends
The data show that LAFC gets more dangerous as the game goes on, scoring 12 of its 18 goals after halftime. Opponents wary of LAFC’s counterattack have often retreated into a low defensive block, leading LAFC to combine cleverly in the penalty area to create 23 shots on target (5th-most in MLS), and scoring five straight goals from outside the box. No MLS team has scored five straight from distance since 2010.
Hugo Lloris’s Continued Excellence
Hugo Lloris was already LAFC’s all-time leader in appearances in goal, clean sheets, and wins. Last year the World Cup champion became one of only two MLS goalkeepers to register at least 12 clean sheets in both 2024 and 2025. With four clean sheets so far in 2026, he is already 33 percent of the way there. Lloris currently leads MLS in save percentage, stopping each of the 15 shots he has faced.
Odds & Ends
- LAFC has had a player make the MLS Team of the Matchday in each of the first four weeks, with a different player selected on each occasion.
MLS Team of the Matchday – 2026
| Matchday | Player(s) |
|---|---|
| Matchday 1 | Bouanga, Eustáquio, Dos Santos (coach) |
| Matchday 2 | Delgado |
| Matchday 3 | Martínez (bench) |
| Matchday 4 | Choinière |
Vancouver is the only other team to have players voted into the Team of the Matchday all four weeks.
LAFC’s longest unbeaten streak, all-time, is 13 matches across all competitions, from May 8, 2024, to July 10, 2024. Including last year’s playoffs, LAFC has lost only three matches since Son arrived last August, going 15W-3L-4D in that span.
New U22 midfielder Amin Boudri said his family in Stockholm, Sweden, has loved watching his early success at LAFC. “They’re really enjoying it,” Boudri said with a laugh. “The only problem is they have to watch at six in the morning, five in the morning.”
LAFC will be back in action on Saturday, March 21, when it visits Austin FC at Q2 Stadium at 5:45 p.m. PT. That game will be broadcast live on FOX. Following the FIFA international break, LAFC returns to BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday, April 4, when Orlando City visits. All MLS matches are broadcast live on Apple TV, with local radio coverage on ESPN LA 710 AM, the ESPN LA app, KFWB La Mera Mera 980 AM (Spanish), and K-Radio 1230 AM (Korean).