Heung-min Son could make his first MLS start when Los Angeles FC trek across the country to visit the New England Revolution on Saturday night in Foxborough, Mass.
The South Korean star made his league debut last weekend, less than a week after his signing was made official. He eventually earned the penalty kick that led to Denis Bouanga’s equalizer in a 2-2 match against Chicago Fire FC.
Now he’ll go into Saturday’s match after a full week of training, during which LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo said the longtime Tottenham Hotspur regular is exceeding expectations.
“The chemistry couldn’t be better,” Cherundolo said. “I think he’s integrated himself in a very quick manner, a very positive manner. He’s very open, forthcoming, communicative and has a lot of charisma. And something I wasn’t expecting is he’s very open with some of our younger players and sharing his experiences already in the getting-to-know-each-other process.”
LAFC (10-6-7, 37 points) are winless in their last three MLS matches (0-1-2) and will begin the weekend in fifth place in the Western Conference. But they also have multiple matches in hand on all of the teams above them, due to their participation in the FIFA Club World Cup earlier this summer.
New England has no such luxury as it scrambles to try to make a last-gasp charge up the Eastern Conference standings and into the playoffs.
The Revolution (7-11-7, 28 points) will begin the weekend in 11th place, eight points out of the ninth and final East postseason spot with eight matches to play.
But last weekend’s 2-0 win at D.C. United, powered by second-half goals from Leo Campana and Carles Gil, halted a nine-match winless run (0-7-2).
“We’ve got to build on it from a confidence standpoint,” New England manager Caleb Porter said. “We looked at the film today, and there’s still a few things, a lot of little things, we need to work on. And the next game’s going to be a lot tougher. So we need to play better in the next game.”
Gil’s 70th-minute tally was his team-leading ninth goal of the campaign. One more will clinch his third double-digit MLS campaign, and two will tie his career high in any league.
–Field Level Media
