After three years without a second team in the Los Angeles area, MLS’s 23rd team, Los Angeles FC, made their debut on March 4th on the road against Seattle Sounders FC and came away with a 1-0 win on Diego Rossi’s goal. The club would christen Banc of California Stadium at the end of April against Seattle and sent the sellout crowd home delirious with a sizzling free-kick goal in stoppage time by Laurant Ciman.

LAFC would use this start to propel themselves to a dominant first season to end up in third place at 16-9-9, the best regular-season ever by an expansion team. In their Knockout Round match against Real Salt Lake on November 1st, the fans at home watched their team go up 2-1 in the 55th minute and then concede two backbreaking goals to eliminate them, the last of which being an own goal by Walker Zimmerman.