The Black & Gold defeat the Seattle Sounders, 2-1, for a league-record seventh consecutive season-opening win.

If the start of Los Angeles Football Club’s seventh season in Major League Soccer is any indication, it could be.

Dispatching the Seattle Sounders, 2-1, in a midday match at BMO Stadium, LAFC (1-0-0, 3 points) secured a league record seventh straight MLS regular season opening day victory, adding to the catalog of historic moments against their Western Conference rival.

The first LAFC goal of 2024 went to midfielder Timothy Tillman, who volleyed a lofted cross from new fullback Omar Campos inside the near post just before halftime.

For the 21-year-old Campos, his well-taken assist punctuated a strong debut playing down the left side that Diego Palacios patrolled the past four years.

Most of Campos’ successes occurred in the defensive end where he and his teammates, especially midfielders Eduard Atuesta, who started in his return after two seasons in Brazil, and Ilie Sanchez made plays in and around the LAFC box disrupting several Sounders’ attacks.

LAFC head coach Cherundolo celebrated the continuity the club has displayed in competition through seven seasons, the last three with him at the helm, as he discussed Atuesta’s reintroduction.

The 26-year-old Colombian appeared in LAFC’s initial match in 2018, a win at Seattle. Atuesta’s eye and feel for working into space is something “that I haven’t seen for a very long time,” Cherundolo said.

Ten minutes after the break Poland’s Mateusz Bogusz — starting in the middle of the attack between Denis Bouanga and Cristian Olivera while LAFC continues negotiating with free agent Carlos Vela — showed what he can do with a little room, smashing in the Black & Gold’s second goal at the upper corner of the far post.

Bouanga, last year’s Golden Boot winner, did not score on eight shots, clanging two off the crossbar, but he assisted on Bogusz’s game winner.

The result pushed the Black & Gold’s unbeaten streak against their division rivals to – you guessed it – seven.

In three meetings last year, including an LAFC playoff win in Seattle, Cherundolo’s group took a pair of 1-0 wins and played to a scoreless draw. Overall LAFC is 10-5-4 against the Sounders, and 7-1-1 against them on their own turf, which was a plush green canvas in front of an announced crowd of 22,214 on opening day.

Seattle began the season with several key contributors unavailable. A bad hamstring meant veteran goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who played the most matches in Sounders’ history, was replaced by Andrew Thomas, a three-time All-Pac 12 first-team selection at Stanford who made four saves in his MLS debut.

Despite Friday’s news that 19-year-old center back Lorenzo Dellavale would miss the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a closed-door preseason match in early February against Charlotte, LAFC’s depth wasn’t nearly as stretched en route to their record-setting performance.

The Sounders (0-1-0) got back into the game with less than half hour to go following a video review of a tackle in the LAFC box by defender Aaron Long on his U.S. men’s national team compatriot Jordan Morris.

Long chased down a Morris breakaway and clipped the forward in front of LAFC’s new French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

With Professional Soccer Referees Association members locked out to begin the season, replacement official Wesley Costa pointed to the spot.

Seattle’s latest Designated Player signing, Argentine midfielder Pedro de la Vega, sent Lloris the wrong direction, denying him a clean sheet in his debut.

The 2018 World Cup-winning French goalkeeper made his first save for LAFC in the third minute on a hard shot by Morris.

By the match’s conclusion, including six minutes of stoppage time, Lloris finished with seven.