Mathieu Choinière Brace Lifts LAFC Past St. Louis 2-0, Extending Club's Best-Ever Start at 4-0-0

Mathieu Choinière waited 72 minutes for his moment on Saturday night. When it came, he didn't just score. He sprinted toward the BMO Stadium stands and climbed into a crowd that had been holding its breath all game.

LAFC beat St. Louis CITY SC 2-0, with Choinière scoring both goals from outside the box in an eight-minute burst late in the second half. The win moved LAFC to 4-0-0 with 12 points, and the club said it is the first time in LAFC history that the team has opened a season with four straight wins. Four games, four clean sheets. That is not a hot start so much as a lockdown.

Woodwork and Frustration in the First Half

The opening 45 minutes had everything except a goal. Denis Bouanga got a look in the first minute after a Son Heung-Min pass and sent it over the bar. St. Louis answered with its own chances: Conrad Wallem fired high and wide in the sixth minute, and Jaziel Orozco headed over from a corner in the 26th.

Hugo Lloris made his first real save in the 34th, stopping a Cedric Teuchert shot, and Roman Bürki matched him two minutes later on a Bouanga effort from the left side of the box. LAFC came closest in the 41st minute, when Nathan Ordaz hit the right post with a left-footed shot from the center of the box after a headed pass from Ryan Raposo. LAFC's recap added that St. Louis had a goal called back for a foul inside the box during the half.

The Turning Point: Choinière From Distance, Twice

LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos changed things at halftime, sending on Timothy Tillman and Tyler Boyd for Mark Delgado and David Martínez, and St. Louis sent on Sergio Córdova for Teuchert. The visitors still looked dangerous. Córdova headed just wide from a Marcel Hartel cross after a corner in the 63rd, and Simon Becher missed narrowly from outside the box in the 69th.

Then Choinière took over. In the 73rd minute, he picked up a loose ball near midfield, per the club, ran at the middle of the St. Louis defense and hit a low right-footed shot from outside the box into the bottom left corner. Cue the trip into the stands.

Eight minutes later, he did it again. Bürki had just saved efforts from Amin Boudri and Boyd, the second one going behind for a corner. When the clearance came out, Choinière took a touch and placed another right-footed shot from distance into the same bottom left corner. Same finish, same corner, same result. The guy found a cheat code and pressed it twice.

Bouanga almost made it three in the 85th, hitting the right post from the left side of the six-yard box after a Raposo cross.

Star Watch: Choinière, Lloris and a 17-Year-Old Debut

Choinière's night was a statement. The Canadian international was making his first league start of the season, according to LAFC, and he turned two shots into two goals. The club said they were his first goals of 2026 and his first ever at BMO Stadium, and that he became the first LAFC player to score multiple goals in a league game this season. It was the second multi-goal game of his MLS career.

Lloris did the quieter work. He finished with four saves, three of them after the second goal as St. Louis piled forward: Hartel from a tight angle in the 84th, Brendan McSorley in stoppage time and Célio Pompeu from distance. The club said it was his 40th regular-season win with LAFC, making him the 62nd goalkeeper in MLS history to reach 40 wins.

There was also a fun footnote late. Jude Terry replaced Bouanga in the 86th minute to make his MLS debut. LAFC said that at 17 years and 157 days old, he is the third-youngest player to appear in an MLS game for the club.

Raposo, one of three lineup changes from the 1-0 win over FC Dallas the previous weekend, made his first MLS start for LAFC, according to the club, and had a hand in both shots that hit the post.

Stats That Matter

• Shots: St. Louis 18, LAFC 16. LAFC put 5 on target; St. Louis managed 4.
• Possession: St. Louis 55.1 percent, LAFC 44.9 percent.
• Crosses: St. Louis attempted 30 and completed 6, which tells you how often the visitors were knocking without getting in.
• Clearances: LAFC made 33 to St. Louis' 16. The back line spent the night saying no.
• Corners: St. Louis 9, LAFC 5. LAFC still scored the only goal that came out of a corner sequence.

What It Means

LAFC is 4-0-0 with 12 points, having beaten Inter Miami, Houston, FC Dallas and St. Louis by a combined 8-0. The club said it is the fourth team in MLS history to start a season with a shutout in each of its first four games, joining the 2007 New York Red Bulls, Vancouver in 2012 and, awkwardly for the visitors, St. Louis CITY in 2025. Counting the end of last season, LAFC has gone 363 minutes of regular-season play without allowing a goal, the second-longest such run in club history.

Next up is a Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16 second leg in Costa Rica against Alajuelense on Tuesday, then a trip to Austin FC on Saturday.

St. Louis falls to 0-1-3 with 1 point and has now lost three in a row, all without scoring. Its only goal of the season came in the opening 1-1 draw with Charlotte FC. There was a small consolation: the club said Daniel Edelman made his 100th MLS appearance. St. Louis hosts the New England Revolution next Saturday.

Closing Take

St. Louis did a lot of things right for 72 minutes. It had more of the ball, more shots and more corners. None of that matters when the other team has a midfielder who decides the edge of the box is his personal driving range. LAFC has not conceded in four games, and now it has a second scoring threat who is not named Bouanga or Son. That should scare the rest of the West.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Club notes from LAFC (lafc.com) and St. Louis CITY SC (stlcitysc.com).