Los Angeles FC will hope Son Heung-Min’s resurgent form continues on Saturday when they host a Sporting Kansas City side that is quietly improving following an awful start to the season.
Son has scored in back-to-back matches since LAFC (9-5-3, 30 points) returned from the World Cup break after he failed to find the net at all before the 2026 tournament.
But he has remained an important part of the Black-and-Gold’s attack as a provider. He still leads MLS with 10 assists. And now the scoring is coming too, like his excellent opener from distance in LAFC’s 3-1 home victory over Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night.
“Last season, when he arrived, a lot of his shots would go through the legs of a defender and into a corner,” explained LAFC manager Marc Dos Santos. “And then in the beginning of this year, the first part of the season, everything was getting blocked. … And now in the last two games, the shots were good, and he was able to finish. But (I was) always a big believer in what he gives to the team and how he helps the team.”
Son’s 10th assist of the season came after his opening goal, setting up Denis Bouanga for his team-leading eighth goal.
The win over RSL was LAFC’s third straight, following a run of four consecutive defeats in all competitions as the Black-and-Gold balanced MLS play with the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Meanwhile, Dejan Joveljic scored his team-leading eighth goal early and Manu Garcia added a second shortly after halftime in Sporting Kansas City’s 2-1 home win over Minnesota United on Wednesday night.
After a dreadful start, in which SKC (4-10-2, 14 points) went 1-8-2 in MLS play while being outscored 32-8, manager Raphael Wicky’s side have won three of their last five, with the two defeats in that stretch coming by a single goal.
They’ve also shown urgency in addressing their defensive weakness, signing Emir Karic and Moises Mosquera early in the summer transfer window.
“We’re growing,” Wicky said Wednesday. “We had a very bad period in April, which was very, very bad and very hard for various reasons, but I feel we came back from that before the World Cup and we grew. Now we keep building.”
–Field Level Media
