BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — Last Sunday, Son Heung-min was in South Korea, wearing Tottenham’s kit for the last time and bidding a tearful goodbye to the club where he became an icon over the past decade. On Wednesday, he was in Los Angeles, being introduced as LAFC’s newest signing. And Saturday night, he was in a Chicago suburb, a world away from the stage where he made his name but just as prepared to make an impact.
Just 16 minutes after entering as a substitute, the South Korean superstar drew a penalty to help LAFC to a road point in a 2-2 draw with the Chicago Fire in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,831 at SeatGeek Stadium.
“This was an exciting time for a whole week joining LAFC, it was huge,” Son said. “There was only one thing I wanted to do and today, being on the pitch, I think it was fantastic. With the result it’s a little bit disappointing, because I think we should’ve gotten three points here, but generally I think I’m very, very happy and excited.”
LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo and defender Ryan Hollingshead both pointed out how easily Son integrated into the team. He had just a couple training sessions with the group before getting on a plane for the four-hour flight to Chicago.
“He came in just a couple of days ago and was just watching his phone counting down to see if he could get his visa in time to come on this trip,” said Hollingshead, who scored LAFC’s opening goal. “A lot of these DP players, they come in and they’re like, ‘I’ll play when I’m ready,’ or ‘I’ll play when it’s time.’ And he was just immediately pushing to get here, to get on the trip, to be with the guys.”
Son entered to a sizable ovation from the packed venue despite the fact that LAFC only announced at 10:08 p.m. local time the night before the game that the Tottenham icon traveled and was eligible to play. There were plenty of Korean flags and Spurs jerseys around the venue from fans who snagged tickets to see Son make his MLS debut.
Son Heung-min races down the field in his first MLS match (Photo by Talia Sprague/Imagn Images)
Son noted that he wasn’t used to such a reaction away from home.
“I really enjoyed it,” Son said. “You never had this coming from away games. I used to play in the Premier League. When I played at away grounds they were always booing me and always booing the players. But it was nice to see people were celebrating, people were enjoying the football.”
Son didn’t disappoint those cheering fans who had come out to see him.
He was active and dangerous in his first minutes with his new club, and his run into space on a counterattack provided t he decisive moment of the game. Son sprinted into space in transition and was in the box when Chicago center back Carlos Terán went through his legs to make a tackle and prevent a shot.
The referee, trailing well behind the transition attack, didn’t even move to whistle the foul, but a VAR review was initiated and the penalty was eventually given. LAFC star Denis Bouanga took the penalty, with the venue booing the winger for taking the spot kick instead of giving it to his new teammate. But Bouanga made no mistake, burying his shot into the upper corner to pull LAFC even.
“The entire play was a transition from Chicago,” Cherundolo said. “This is not something we draw up on the tactical board, by any means. That’s the game. That’s why fans come to the stadium.”
It was exactly the type of game-changing moment that LAFC hopes Son will continue to deliver in his time in MLS. (And he nearly had the winner, too, with just a last-ditch Jonathan Dean tackle blocking a shot that seemed destined for the back of the net.)
The setting of the debut was undoubtedly an odd one. If the excitement of Lionel Messi’s 2023 debut in MLS felt like the dawning of a new era, Son’s welcome was a reminder that the league still has plenty of room to grow — even two years after the greatest player of all time landed on its shores.
The Fire hosted the game in its former home, SeatGeek Stadium, in a southwest suburb of the Windy City due to conflicts at Soldier Field with a Chicago Bears preseason game on Sunday. SeatGeek, built by former owners AEG, opened in 2006 as one of the first soccer-specific stadiums in MLS. The Fire left several years ago because it wasn’t working for the club on multiple levels. (The club will open a new, $650 million privately-financed downtown stadium in 2028.)
Hollingshead noted that people were sliding all over the field and that the grass played, “super thick. Really, really heavy.”
“It felt like, each step, it had an extra 20 pounds on your feet,” he said.
Bridgeview was just the start. Son will go through a gauntlet of MLS 1.0 to start his LAFC career. Up next: A cross-country flight to the Gillette Stadium turf in New England. Then, FC Dallas’s under-construction Toyota Stadium on a summer night in Frisco, Texas.
Phil Anschutz, the Krafts and the Hunts kept MLS alive in 2001, when they quadrupled-down and put more money onto the table to launch Soccer United Marketing. That bet on the commercial market for soccer in the U.S. paid off — and kept MLS from folding. But it’s notable that the New England and FC Dallas venues still don’t feel too far removed from the league’s early days.
(A revamped Toyota Stadium is expected to be completed in 2028, while New England continues its efforts to build a new stadium.)
Son Heung-min warms up with his new LAFC teammates (Photo by Talia Sprague/Imagn Images)
Son, to his credit, made no hint of how the field played. He mentioned the longer travel he faces now in MLS and jokingly cringed when reminded that it would be a cross-continent journey next week, but the winger emphasized he came to the league for a reason.
“I want to do well for MLS because I came here to make this league big,” he said. “I want to be part of [that]. … I’m very, very happy to be here. So let’s make this league big.”
It was an important message from Son because he represents the ambition that will push the league into its next era. LAFC certainly has been a model for what a team can do with an aggressive ownership group willing to shove all-in. From the club’s launch, to its downtown stadium, its supporter’s culture and marquee designated players — first Carlos Vela, now Son — it all signals a genuine attempt to resonate in the market. To matter on a real level.
The debut of the most expensive player (by transfer fee) in league history juxtaposed against markets that show it’s very much a league still in construction is an important contrast. MLS is trying to determine its path forward. The league needs to grow up, and, for the most part, it is ready to. The progress toward new or renovated buildings in Chicago, Boston and Dallas indicates as much. Those venues will join the billions of dollars of investment in soccer-specific stadiums and training fields that now dot the country. MLS today has a level of permanence that other domestic leagues long sought. The foundation is there. If it truly wants to be one of the best leagues in the world, MLS now has to evolve accordingly.
That it wasn’t able to get change across the line in time for next summer’s World Cup is troubling, to say the least. But you have to hope that the willingness of LAFC’s ownership group to spend $26 million on a transfer fee for Son — and commissioner Don Garber’s soft launch of “MLS 3.0” at the All-Star Game — is proof that the league is headed toward a more aggressive stance in the coming years.
The setting and circumstances also highlighted just how fortuitously the early days of Messi in Miami lined up. He debuted at home a week or so after arriving in Fort Lauderdale, kicking off a tournament, the Leagues Cup, that MLS hoped would matter. What he did in that game was, of course, straight out of a movie script. Miami and Messi didn’t go on the road until Messi’s fourth game, allowing its star to adjust to life in America from the comfort of home and in a protective cocoon the club was able to form around him. As importantly, it turned Inter’s home into the hot spot of the moment, where celebrities could flock to pay tribute to the iconic No. 10.
Watch every touch from Son Heung-Min’s first MLS game. 👌 pic.twitter.com/krUyOiUMJR
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 10, 2025
LAFC will have to wait until Sept. 1 — more than three weeks after he signed — for Son to debut in front of home fans. It’s not ideal, but his first days with the squad certainly left a positive impression of what he will bring to the league and to LAFC — on the field, in the locker room and in the market.
“You’ve seen the videos that have come out; he’s (been) going all over L.A. the last five days,” Hollingshead said. “The guy hasn’t slept, he hasn’t, like, eaten. They’re already asking him to throw out the first pitch. They’re already asking him to throw the jump ball in the NBA. They want him doing everything already, and then he is still trying to come on this trip, be a part of the team, be a part of the minutes. … So really excited about having him and couldn’t speak more highly of the last couple days we’ve had him.”
As Hollingshead noted, Saturday night capped what had surely been an exhausting week for Son. Still, LAFC’s new franchise player changed the game.
Son managed a (understandably tired) smile reflecting on it—then promised more was to come.
“The heat was a little bit hotter than the U.K., but other than that I really enjoyed it,” Son said. “Loved to go out there with the boys and had just maybe two, three sessions with the boys, but still we understood (each other) quite well. I’m just looking forward to it. It was my first game, I enjoyed it. I’m very happy… I’m sure I can make better memories in the coming weeks.”
(Top photo: Talia Sprague/Imagn Images)
