{"id":57274,"date":"2025-08-10T08:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T08:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/57274\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T08:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T08:43:07","slug":"son-makes-instant-impact-in-lafc-debut-wins-penalty-in-draw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/57274\/","title":{"rendered":"Son makes instant impact in LAFC debut, wins penalty in draw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Son Heung-Min<\/a> made an instant impact at LAFC<\/a>, winning a penalty kick less than 20 minutes into his debut off the substitutes’ bench to help his new team rescue a 2-2 draw at the Chicago Fire<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The South Korea<\/a> star, taking the field just three days after sealing an <\/a>MLS<\/a>-record $26 million transfer<\/a> from Tottenham Hotspur<\/a>, was taken down in the penalty area by Chicago defender Carlos Ter\u00e1n<\/a> as he sprinted onto the end of a through ball with a clear sight of goal.<\/p>\n

Despite not initially awarding the penalty kick, referee Ricardo Montero pointed to the spot after an intervention from VAR. Denis Bouanga<\/a>, the team’s top scorer this season, converted the penalty in the 81st minute to give LAFC a share of the points in Bridgeview, Illinois.<\/p>\n

“It was a great pass and there was definitely contact and it was definitely a penalty, no doubt about it,” Son said.<\/p>\n

“A bit disappointed not getting three points but I think everybody put in a lot of effort, happy I made my debut and I hope the goals come soon.”<\/p>\n

It was the second time LAFC had come from behind in the game, with Ryan Hollingshead<\/a>‘s header earlier canceling out Teran’s opening goal in the first half, before Jonathan Bamba<\/a> put the Fire back in front in the 70th minute.<\/p>\n

Son Heung-Min appeals for a penalty after being taken down in the box on his LAFC debut.\u00a0Geoff Stellfox\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It completed a whirlwind seven days for Son. On Sunday, he bid an emotional farewell to Tottenham after 10 years following a preseason game in his native South Korea. On Wednesday, he touched down in Los Angeles, taking in LAFC’s Leagues Cup win over Tigres UANL<\/a> before he was officially unveiled<\/a> the following day at a welcoming event featuring the city’s Mayor Karen Bass among other luminaries.<\/p>\n

It is on the field, though, that Son, who scored 173 goals in 454 competitive appearances during 10 years at Spurs, figures to do most of his talking.<\/p>\n

And after getting his visa through Friday evening, he was immediately thrown into the thick of MLS action on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Despite declaring himself fully fit upon his arrival, Son had to wait until the 61st minute to make his entrance as one of the biggest arrivals in MLS history.<\/p>\n

Things didn’t immediately go his way as Bamba soon scored to put Chicago in front. The home side almost extended its lead, too, but Son’s former long-time Tottenham teammate Hugo Lloris<\/a> made a vital intervention in goal before the post kept out an effort from Brian Guti\u00e9rrez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Immediately from that reprieve, LAFC sprung on the attack. Nathan Ordaz<\/a> fed the ball forward and Son, showcasing the speed and direct running that has helped make him a global star, got to it first with only a foul able to stop him from a potential first goal in Black and Gold.<\/p>\n

That will have to wait at least another week, when LAFC, which moved up to fifth in the Western Conference, visits the New England Revolution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m getting ready and it was a decent 30 minutes in my legs getting ready for next week,” Son added. “So we’ll see how I progress in the training sessions and with the players and we’ll see if next week I can start the game and make a big impact.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Son Heung-Min made an instant impact at LAFC, winning a penalty kick less than 20 minutes into his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-57274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}