Just five minutes in, Son converted a penalty kick from well outside the 18-yard box, lifting it over the wall of Dallas defenders and into the upper left corner of the goal, where it drove directly into the Apple TV net camera. The camera hadn’t even stopped shaking when MLS broadcast voice Nate Bukaty screamed, “The fans got what they came for here in Dallas!” Yes, they sure did.
In 2023, the city of Dallas designated a 1.5-mile stretch of Royal Lane in northwest Dallas as Koreatown for the next decade. But for at least one night, that designation might have moved about 20 miles north to Toyota Stadium in Frisco. Lines were forming well before gates opened, and fans were settling into sun-bleached seats way too early for a match in late August. They brought their kids, they brought their signs and jerseys, and capped it all with a huge helping of Korean pride. And whatever available seats didn’t get snapped up by the Korean community were quickly snared by fans of Tottenham Hotspur, Son’s former EPL club.
They cheered when he came in for warmups, cheered when he stood for pregame ceremonies, gasped whenever he touched the ball in the game, and swarmed the area around the player’s tunnel at the end of the night. Star power.
Ticket demand for the game was also exacerbated by the ongoing construction at the stadium, which is aimed at adding more seats and a lot more shade. While the long-term vision is beautiful and the upgrades are sorely needed, closing off almost half your capacity for an entire season has been a bit of a buzzkill for the fans and the team. There has been some rumbling that this partially explains the team’s better record on the road than at home. Regardless, on this night, all of that was thrown out the window.
After that first quick, spectacular goal, the home side could have faded. Instead, they fed off the crowd’s energy and, for the most part, dominated the rest of the first half. FC Dallas’s top goal scorer, Petar Musa, is nursing a sore hamstring and was relegated to substitute status. In his place, fan favorite Logan Farrington moved to the number 9 position, and in the 21st minute, he put home the equalizer, and we had a real game on.
With extra time added for heat-related cooling breaks, VAR and injuries, the first half featured an astounding 12 minutes of stoppage time. Deep into the second half, you could tell that the Texas heat and all the stoppage time were starting to take their toll. Possession started tilting towards LAFC and FC Dallas goalkeeper Michael Collodi was deflecting shots with both beauty and desperation. As he fisted one last dangerous cross into the dark sky, the final whistle blew, and the game would end in a one/one draw.
There was no stopping Son Heung-min's first goal, but keeper Michael Collodi kept it out of the net the rest of the way
Mike Brooks
Michael Collodi punches away one final attempt as FC Dallas and FCLA battle to a 1/1 draw
Mike Brooks
With Messi on the East Coast and Son on the West Coast, the league now has great East-West rivalry potential. Although they won’t meet this year in the regular season, there is no doubt who league executives are hoping to see in this year’s playoff final. And his MLS record transfer fee of (reportedly) 26.5 million dollars indicates that MLS team owners are slowly warming to the idea that international stars are the key to pushing American professional soccer to the next level. We were there to witness and brought back these pictures.
