LAFC will open the 2021 MLS season at home, playing host to Austin FC on April 17. The Galaxy will start their season the next day against David Beckham’s Inter Miami.
LAFC’s opener, which will be televised on Fox, will mark the second consecutive season the team has launched its season against an expansion team at home. Last year it beat Inter Miami 1-0.
The Galaxy’s first game will be shown on ABC.
LAFC also will be at Banc of California Stadium for the second weekend of the regular season, facing Seattle. The Galaxy’s first match at Dignity Health Sports Park will be played April 25 against the New York Red Bulls.
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The league released the home openers Wednesday for all 27 teams. The full regular-season schedule will be released soon.
For their home openers, both LAFC and the Galaxy expect to play in front of a limited number of supporters for the first time in more than a year. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office’s revised its COVID-19 guidelines to allow for the opening of theme parks and outdoor sports venues on April 1, with attendance limited based on the number of coronavirus cases in each county.
Los Angeles County, where both teams play, is in the most restricted of the state’s color-coded tier system, meaning attendance would be limited to 100 fans. But the county is expected to move from the purple tier to the red tier before opening day, which would allow both teams to fill 20% of their stadium’s available seats. For the Galaxy, that would mean more than 5,000 fans, while LAFC’s attendance would be capped at around 4,400.
Because of a prohibition on non-essential travel across the U.S.-Canadian border, the league’s three Canadian teams will begin the season in temporary homes in the U.S. Montreal will play in South Florida, Toronto will be in Orlando, Fla., and Vancouver will play in Salt Lake City.
