Superstar Son Heung-min to make home debut for LAFC against San Diego FC

Los Angeles FC superstar addition Son Heung-min will make his home debut when the club plays host to Western Conference-leading San Diego FC on Sunday.

The South Korea native and former Tottenham standout in the English Premier League scored his first MLS goal last Saturday in a 1-1 tie at FC Dallas. It was his third appearance and second start for his new club.

While productive play is his priority, Son also is looking forward to performing in front of the boisterous home fans.

"They never stop singing and as a player, that's all you want," Son said. "I can't really wait to perform (for) the fans. Performance wise, I can't guarantee (anything). In football, you will have ups and downs, but for sure I can guarantee I will give everything when I wear this shirt."

LAFC (11-6-8, 41 points) are in fifth place in the Western Conference after going 1-0-2 since their return from Leagues Cup play. They also are 5-0-3 in MLS action since the start of July.

Son was the EPL Golden Boot winner in 2022 when he tied Liverpool's Mohamed Saleh with 23 goals. Now he teams with LAFC forward Denis Bouanga, who is tied for seventh in MLS with 14 goals.

San Diego FC (16-7-5, 53 points) know all about offense. They share the Western Conference lead in goals scored with the San Jose Earthquakes at 52.

Anders Dreyer leads the club with 13 goals, while Milan Iloski has 10. Dreyer also has an MLS-best 17 assists.

After already clinching a playoff berth, the expansion club remains in contention for the Supporters' Shield as best regular-season club across both conferences. San Diego FC trail the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia Union by one point and are one point ahead of FC Cincinnati.

After they earned a 3-2 victory over LAFC at home on March 29, in their sixth ever game, San Diego FC can now tie the MLS record for victories by an expansion club. St. Louis City had 17 victories in their debut season of 2023.

"(We are) keeping an eye on wanting to get better but also balancing that with celebrating the overall work that we've done," San Diego FC head coach Mikey Varas said after the club clinched a playoff spot with a 0-0 draw against the Portland Timbers last Saturday.

"And then the question is, now what? What do we want to do? And I know that everybody in that locker room wants to push for a lot more."

--Field Level Media