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Coming off the massive debut of Son Heung-Min, LAFC continues their road trip, all the way to the east coast. A match in Foxborough, against the New England Revolution and their new and former goalkeeper, USMNT Matt Turner.
The Revs attacked early and pushed the pace. Creating early chances and threatening. The Revs are a team desperately trying to keep pace and stay alive in the eastern conference playoff race. Son Heung-Min in his first start with LAFC showing his world-class skills early.
LAFC did make a few counter runs, but nothing of it. The scoring wasn’t happening on either side in the first half, the pace was slow at times. The Revs providing more threat and urgency. So they go to halftime scoreless.
LAFC comes out of the half looking a lot more sharper and going through Son. This was Son’s half. More chances, more aggressiveness from LAFC and a couple dribble moves from Son that will make you gasp.
Two near scoring situations for son as he just misses the goal by a few feet wide, similar to a shot he had in the first half. You could feel a breakthrough was coming for LA, and it finally did. After Son hit the shot wide, the ensuing goal kick was pressured by Timmy Tillman and the ball found itself back with Son and it skipped past him to the incoming Mark Delgado who blasts the shot to the top corner of the the far end of the goal post. Matt Turner had no chance, 1-0 LAFC. Delgado with a beauty.
It was a deserved goal for LA, who was coming on strong in the second half. Now, with New England pushing, LA was could capitalize on it. Son followed up with low header that nearly went past Turner, but it turned into a fantastic slap save. If not for Turner’s heroics, it would have netted Son his first MLS goal.
Shortly after, Son found himself in the Revs box and taking on two defenders and laying off a perfect ball to the left where a charging Mathieu Choinière was there to put it away to the back of the net. 2-0 LAFC, sealing the deal. Revs had one more chance to score in the final moments, as a ball sprung around the goal, but Hugo Lloris kept it out.
LAFC hold onto a solid 2-0 win and grab three points on the road. These are what they call “trap games” where a team you should beat gives you a hard time, but LAFC didn’t fall for the trap and got the job done.
Huge performance by Son Heung-Min who was all over the pitch creating opportunities, having quality shots on goal and setting up his teammates. He really deserved a goal, but at least ended up with his first assist. Aside from his world-class skills, what Son does is takes off the pressure from Denis Bouanga and takes the opponent’s focus off Bouanga.
This was a solid win and a good second half performance, after a sluggish start for LA. LAFC will continue to long road trip and head to Dallas next weekend.
NOTES
- Son Heung-Min made his first start for LAFC and played all 90 minutes after contributing 29 minutes as a second-half substitute in his MLS debut last weekend in Chicago, a 2-2 draw.
- In addition to his first MLS assist, Son was credited with two shots on target and drew three fouls from New England.
- LAFC is now 3W-3L-5D on the road in MLS play in 2025, has won two of its last three away from BMO Stadium. The club is unbeaten in its last seven MLS road matches (2W-0L-5D).
- Saturday’s win was LAFC’s second-ever at Gillette Stadium. LAFC defeated the Revs 2-0 at Gillette in the 2019 regular season. LAFC has also earned a 1-1 draw (2018) and 4-0 win (2023) against the Eastern Conference club in Los Angeles.
- Delgado’s goal was his third of the season and the 25th of his MLS career.
- Choinière’s goal was his first of the year and the 12th of his MLS career. The two-time MLS All-Star scored 11 goals for CF Montréal between 2018 and 2024. His most recent goal came on May 29, 2024.
- Other results atop the Western Conference standings: third-place Minnesota defeated fourth-place Seattle 1-0 Saturday night. First- and second-place San Diego and Vancouver play separate matches on Sunday. By the end of the weekend, LAFC will still have at least two games in hand on each of these clubs contending for the top four spots in the West.
LAFC will be back in action on Saturday, August 23 when the club visits FC Dallas. That game is scheduled to kick off at 5:30 p.m. PT and can be seen live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
