Pochettino: Son Heung-Min will boost MLS, says US coach.

Pochettino praises Son Heung-Min and his impact on MLS

The coach of the United States men’s national team, Mauricio Pochettino, has expressed his admiration for Son Heung-Min, LAFC player and former pupil at Tottenham Hotspur. Pochettino highlighted that the South Korean international “will help in the evolution” of the MLS. Son, who spent a decade at Tottenham, four of them under Pochettino’s management, joined LAFC in August for an MLS record fee of $26 million. The 33-year-old player, with 51 goals in 134 international appearances, will lead South Korea against Pochettino’s USMNT in a friendly at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, on Saturday.

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An incredible opportunity to see each other, we love each other very much, he was a very important player, one of the most important in my time at Tottenham,” Pochettino said in his press conference before Friday’s match.

Mauricio Pochettino

What he is going to bring to MLS, I think it’s this type of player that will help in the evolution of the game.

Mauricio Pochettino

Son has accumulated a goal and an assist in his first four appearances with LAFC. As for Pochettino and company, the coach reiterated on Friday that he wants to leave behind a summer saga that seemed to highlight a supposed friction between him and captain Christian Pulisic after the star’s absence from the Gold Cup. Pulisic cited fatigue as a reason for not playing in the Gold Cup, adding that Pochettino had denied the star’s request to play in only two friendlies prior to the tournament. Pochettino responded by saying that he was the one who made the decisions about who played, adding: “I am not a puppet.”

For me, that’s in the past, these kinds of things that happen… we all make mistakes, sometimes because we read the situation in a different way,” said the Argentine coach on Friday.

Mauricio Pochettino

“Christian is happy to be here, of course he is an important player for us and… the atmosphere is good.” After facing South Korea, the United States will face Japan in another friendly in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, as the team continues its preparations for next year’s World Cup at home.