Los Angeles FC didn’t exactly ease into 2026—at least not until now. After a first loss finally showed up, the club and Son Heung-min have a quick chance to reset the mood with a big game in the Concacaf Champions Cup.
This week, LAFC will visit Cruz Azul for the second leg of the quarterfinals at Estadio Cuauhtemoc in Puebla, Mexico. Kickoff is set for 9 p.m. Tuesday (local time), which is 10 a.m. Wednesday in South Korea. And yeah, you can already feel how much depends on this one—one match, one ticket to the semifinals.
LAFC are in the driver’s seat after handily winning the first leg 3-0 last week. Misryoum newsroom reported that it also made LAFC the first U.S.-based club to defeat a defending champion in the tournament’s 64-year history. Son’s influence was part of that story: he opened the scoring with his first open-play goal of the year and, after scoring, made the “blah blah” gesture with his hand—apparently taking jabs at his critics. It landed in the middle of a narrative that’s been following him a bit lately. Prior to that match, Son had been held to one penalty goal for the season—scored in the opening round of the Concacaf tournament on Feb. 17.
And then there’s the part that’s harder to quantify: the national team silence. Son failed to score for Korea in the national team’s friendly matches against Ivory Coast and Austria, fueling the talk that he had lost a step at age 33. It’s the kind of storyline fans love to argue about, and players hate to live with. Actually, the timing is a bit brutal: when LAFC needed him most in form, he was trying to shake off the question marks.
With Son sitting out, LAFC fell to Portland Timbers 2-1 in their latest Major League Soccer match Saturday for their first loss of 2026. Misryoum editorial desk noted that LAFC had five wins and one draw in MLS play prior to that loss without having conceded a goal—so the reset wasn’t just psychological, it was also defensive, in a way. The good news for LAFC is that Son and other veterans were held out of that match, meaning they should be well rested against Cruz Azul. I keep thinking about the last time they played at this intensity—like the air before kickoff, when stadium noise swells but nobody wants to be the first to move. It’s that moment right before things get loud.
Even a draw would be enough to send LAFC to the semifinals, and it would push Son a step closer to his first trophy with LAFC after his arrival last August. LAFC were eliminated in the Western Conference semifinals in last year’s MLS playoffs, so this is a different kind of opportunity. The math is pretty clear: LAFC will also advance if they lose the second leg by 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 or 4-1. A
4-1 Cruz Azul victory would result in a 4-4 tie in the aggregate score, but LAFC would still advance thanks to the away goals rule. LAFC have scored in nine consecutive away matches in the Concacaf Champions Cup, tying the longest such streak by an MLS club since 2008. Still, if Cruz Azul win their home leg 3-0, it would tie the series at 3-3 on aggregate, with neither team having scored an away goal—then
it goes to two 15-minute periods of extra time and penalties if needed.
There’s also history hanging around the quarterfinals stage, the kind that makes coaches talk a little slower. In the round of 16, two MLS clubs won the first legs against Mexican opponents before getting thrashed in the second legs in Mexico. San Diego FC took a 3-2 lead into the second leg against Deportivo Toluca FC and then fell 4-0 in the away match to be eliminated. FC Cincinnati defeated Tigres UANL 3-0 at home
to open their series before losing 5-1 in the second leg in Mexico. So sure, LAFC start with an advantage—but none of this is guaranteed. And this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup began with 27 clubs from the United States, Mexico, Canada, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic, with four teams each from the U.S. and Mexico in the quarterfinals. By the time the clock hits full time in
Puebla, the story will either be about momentum… or about how fast it can disappear.
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