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Sharp-looking Los Angeles FC take on revamped Dynamo

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MLS: Inter Miami CF at LAFCFeb 21, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles FC forward Denis Bouanga (99) celebrates his goal past Inter Miami CF goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair (97) during the second half at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-Imagn Images

Los Angeles FC will try to continue their perfect start under new head coach Marc Dos Santos on Saturday night when they visit a Houston Dynamo side that was among the busiest in MLS in terms of offseason transactions.

Dos Santos’ Black and Gold opened their regular season with a dominant 3-0 victory over Lionel Messi and Inter Miami on Feb. 21. On either side of that, LAFC (1-0-0, 3 points) defeated Real Espana in the first round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, 6-1 away in the first leg in Honduras and 1-0 in the return fixture at home on Tuesday.

Denis Bouanga recorded four goals in an assist over those first two matches, and Son Heung-Min added four assists. Yet Dos Santos still decided to play the star duo for the first half of the return leg on Tuesday, despite being virtually assured of advancing.

“Rhythm,” he said. “Sonny didn’t have a perfect preseason, so it’s important that he keeps getting rhythm. And I told both Sonny and Denis this week that I would have them 45 minutes on the field, that at halftime we would make the changes. So they were aware of it.”

The Dynamo (1-0-0, 3 points) opened their regular season with a 2-1 home victory over the Chicago Fire on Feb. 21, coming from behind on a pair of goals from the Brazilian Guilherme Augusto in his MLS debut.

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In addition to the 30-year-old former Santos captain, the Dynamo added former LAFC winger Mateusz Bogusz from Cruz Azul and brought back Hector Herrera from Toluca this winter to bolster a squad that finished 12th in Western Conference in 2025.

Herrera, 35, was previously part of the Houston side that reached the 2023 West final. He has yet to see the field in his return.

Houston manager Ben Olsen suggested his new-look side’s second test could be a lot more difficult than the first. It also might be a good measuring stick.

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“A team that is as good as, I think, any team in league history in how they transition and the quality they have in the attack,” Olsen said of LAFC. “We’ll have our work cut out for us, but I think it’s a challenge that this group is very excited about.”

The two teams have split the past five meetings, with each side winning twice and playing to one scoreless draw.

–Field Level Media

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Donald Trump unhappy with FBI director Kash Patel over controversial Olympic locker-room celebration: Report

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FBI Director Kash Patel’s locker room celebration with the U.S. men’s hockey team at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics has landed him in hot water with President Donald Trump, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Videos of Patel celebrating in the locker room surfaced following Team USA’s 2-1 overtime victory against Canada which marked the first American men’s hockey gold medal since the legendary 1980 “Miracle on Ice.” The footage captured Patel chugging beer, banging on tables and joining in raucous celebrations with the players.

However, Trump has repeatedly expressed his disappointment to Patel about the incident, a person familiar with the conversation revealed to NBC News. The president was also displeased with Patel’s use of a government jet to travel to Italy for the Olympics.

“Trump — who does not drink — told Patel he was unhappy not only with that scene, but also with Patel’s use of government aircraft for the trip to Milan, Italy, according to the person familiar with the matter,” NBC News reported.

The timing of the trip raised eyebrows as it coincided with a shooting incident at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida where an armed individual breached the security perimeter. Though Trump was not present during the incident, critics questioned whether the FBI director should have been abroad during such a significant security event.


Kash Patel defended his Olympic attendance

Patel has defended his presence at the Olympics stating the trip served official purposes beyond athletic spectating. He maintained that he met with Italian law enforcement and U.S. agencies providing security for the international event as well as overseeing protection for the estimated 250,000 American citizens who traveled to Milan.

“For the very concerned media — yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys,” Patel wrote on X following the controversy.

The FBI declined to comment on Trump’s reported displeasure. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson issued a statement emphasizing the administration’s confidence in Patel and highlighting crime rates “dropping across the board” as evidence of successful implementation of the president’s law enforcement agenda.

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This is not the first time Patel has faced scrutiny over his use of FBI aircraft. Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee previously requested that the Justice Department’s inspector general investigate what he characterized as Patel’s “misuse or mismanagement of government resources.”