Son Heung Min did not come to Major League Soccer as an ordinary late career signing. After a decade with Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League, the South Korean forward arrived in Los Angeles last year as one of the biggest international names to enter the American league.
That is why seven games without a goal now carries more weight than a routine scoring slump. Son has stopped scoring just as LAFC, one of the Western Conference’s leading clubs, has stopped winning. The Los Angeles club has gone five MLS games without a victory, turning the struggles of its most prominent attacker into a broader question about an offense that had been expected to contend near the top of the league.
Saturday’s 0 to 0 draw with D.C. United showed what that problem currently looks like. LAFC took 16 shots but put only one on target. Son attempted four himself. All four were blocked before reaching the goalkeeper.
D.C. United’s approach offered one explanation. Defenders repeatedly closed down Son on the left side, denying him the space he normally uses to attack. Son responded by moving inside, sometimes operating almost as a central striker, but the change did little to break open the game.
The larger concern for LAFC is what happened around him. If opponents devote extra defenders to Son, that attention should create opportunities elsewhere. Instead, LAFC produced plenty of attempts without consistently creating clean looks at goal. The club controlled enough of the attacking play to shoot 16 times but rarely forced D.C. United goalkeeper into action.
Son still found moments to threaten. He drove into the penalty area after receiving a backheel pass in the first half, attacked a loose ball after a corner in the second and later met a cutback from Yevhen Cheberko from a central position. Each attempt ended with a defender in the way.
His night was also physical. Son was struck in the face during a first half collision with Japanese defender Kimito Nono and suffered bleeding around his lip, but he stayed on the field and completed the match.
The performance was not one of a forward disappearing from the game. Son continued moving between the wing and the middle, looked for his own shot and produced several dangerous passes. The problem was that none of those actions produced the final result LAFC needed.
That has now been the case for nearly a month. Son has not scored since an Aug. 2 match against the Vancouver Whitecaps. His drought covers four MLS games and three Leagues Cup matches. He remains on six goals in all competitions this season, including four in MLS and two in the Concacaf Champions Cup.
The timing makes the slump more important. LAFC has three draws and two losses over its past five league matches. The club remains third in the Western Conference with 36 points, but a stretch without victories has prevented it from keeping pace with the teams above it.
D.C. United had 15 shots of its own and put three on target, but former Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris stopped all of them. His saves ensured LAFC left Washington with a point. They could not solve the problem at the other end.
Son’s move from Tottenham helped give MLS another globally recognizable star and gave LAFC an attacker capable of changing how opponents defend the club. The past seven games are showing the other side of that equation. When defenses succeed in taking Son away, LAFC has yet to show consistently that someone else can make them pay.
Seven games without a goal is still a small stretch in a long season. But for LAFC, the more troubling number may be five. Until the club finds another way to turn its attacking talent into goals, Son’s scoring drought and LAFC’s winless run will remain difficult to separate.
