Introduction
Mauricio Pochettino did not just offer a post-match soundbite. He opened a window into a relationship that has shaped two careers. Describing Son Heung-min as “like my son” after a friendly in New Jersey, the USA manager underlined how trust, guidance, and shared standards can elevate great players. The words landed on a night when Son again took center stage. He scored the opener with a finish from a tight angle and then supplied a clever assist for a backheeled goal before half time. The performance felt familiar to anyone who watched his peak years under Pochettino. The admiration felt even more so.
This article explores the bond between coach and player and why it matters right now. It breaks down the key moments from the match, explains what Pochettino values most in Son, and looks at how that dynamic can ripple outward for club and country. It also examines what Son’s move to LAFC can do for his game and for the league, and what lessons younger forwards can draw from his decision making in New Jersey.
A Relationship Built At Tottenham
The foundations of this connection were laid at Tottenham. Pochettino demanded intensity, repeated sprints, and positional versatility. Son responded with movement that bent defensive lines and a work rate that made elite pressing possible. He thrived as an inside forward from the left, a striker in a two, and a runner who attacked the space behind a full back. Coach and player learned each other’s rhythms. Pochettino knew when to encourage and when to correct. Son knew the value of the extra sprint that opened the lane for a teammate.
Calling a player “like my son” is not about sentiment alone. It is a way of recognizing shared standards. Pochettino’s teams play with clarity. Son plays with clarity. When those two ideas meet, fluency follows. That is why the New Jersey performance felt like a continuation rather than a cameo. The movements were familiar. So was the end product.
New Jersey: Two Actions That Framed The Night
Friendlies can be flat. This one had edge because the details mattered. Son supplied two of them in quick succession.
The opener in minute 18: a masterclass in angles
The first goal began with timing. Son curved his run to hold the last defender and trusted the pass to arrive. Lee Jae-Sung supplied it with the weight required for a one-touch solution. The finish from a tight angle demanded two things. First: a quick look at the goalkeeper’s feet. Second: a strike that traveled early and low, before the keeper could set. Son chose power that stayed controlled. He drove the ball across goal into the space that looked small but always widens when a keeper shifts. The lesson is simple. Tight angles reward early decisions. Son made his before the defense recognized the danger.
The assist before half time: awareness creates style
The second key moment was creative rather than clinical. Son received with defenders converging and midfielders recovering. Many forwards reset that possession toward the full back. Son saw something better. He cushioned the ball into a zone where the trailing runner could improvise. Lee Dong-Gyeong did exactly that with a backheel that surprised the keeper. The pass was not Hollywood. It was precise. It invited invention and arrived at a pace that made the finish possible. That is the essence of good playmaking. It gives a teammate permission to be brilliant.
What Pochettino Sees When He Sees Son
Great managers separate traits that make highlights from traits that make teams better. When Pochettino speaks about Son as family, he is talking about the qualities that sustain careers.
- Professional habits: Son’s training standard shows up in his first steps. He is always ready to accelerate into a space that others notice a second later. That is not reflex alone. It is rehearsed.
- Two-footed threat: Opponents cannot bend him to a weaker side easily. He shoots across his body with the right or whips through near-post windows with the left. That freedom widens shooting angles and complicates pressing traps.
- Defensive honesty: Wide forwards often jog after losing possession. Son sprints. He takes the first three recovery steps at full tilt, which buys time for teammates to set a block.
- Emotional balance: He competes with conviction without carrying grudges into the next phase. The next action is always his focus.
Pochettino, a defender by trade, tends to value forwards who respect the collective. Son fits that map. He creates without hurting the team’s structure and presses without draining the team’s shape.
Why The Compliment Matters Now
Words from coaches set tones that outlast a single night. By calling Son “like my son,” Pochettino does three things at once. He honors the past they shared. He validates the present by recognizing that Son’s standards have not slipped. And he sets an example for the players listening. The message is that elite football turns on relationships powered by trust and accountability. It is not soft. It is demanding. Sons do not get free passes. They get clear expectations.
There is also a tactical subtext. When a coach trusts a forward at that level, he can build patterns around him. Midfielders know when to release the pass. Full backs know when to overlap. Set piece variations can base their second phase on his run. The relationship lubricates the mechanisms.
Son At LAFC: Fit, Function, And Impact
A new club offers a new canvas. For LAFC, Son adds three immediate gifts. First: a runner who turns broken play into goals. Second: a finisher who does not require many touches to decide a chance. Third: a brand of professionalism that drags standards up around him.
How LAFC can use him on the pitch
Expect rotations that look like a triangle: winger to striker to underlapping midfielder. Son can start outside the full back and end inside the near post. He can also arrive late at the top of the box for the cutback that modern wide play is designed to produce. In transition, the first pass forward does not need to be perfect. Son’s control at speed can correct slightly overhit balls and still keep the chance alive.
Set pieces offer another lever. Near-post flicks and back-post ghost runs suit his timing. A defender who ball-watches for half a second loses him.
Off the pitch: an accelerator for the league
Players like Son change the conversation. They attract new viewers and raise expectations for away crowds. That matters in stadiums and on training grounds. Young players see the routines required to maintain a world class career and copy them. Coaches can point to the details that make a difference because the difference stands in front of them every day.
What USA Can Learn From Son Under Pochettino’s Eye
When a manager praises a former player in such personal terms, current players should lean in. The blueprint is there. Wide forwards in the USA setup can study three repeatable behaviors from Son’s New Jersey tape.
- Start positions: He begins high enough to threaten depth but narrow enough to connect a wall pass with midfield. That dual threat forces full backs and center backs into uncomfortable decisions.
- First touch direction: He takes the ball on the half-turn so that the first touch beats a man rather than simply controlling the pass. That wins a yard that analytics often miss but defenders feel.
- Off-ball sprint timing: He hits top speed just before the pass is played. Arriving at the back line already sprinting means the through ball only needs to be adequate.
Coaches can build sessions around those ideas: arrival runs in the channel, finishing at tight angles without extra touches, and five-second pressing bursts to halt counters. The benefit shows up quickly. Even when the goal does not arrive, territory and pressure increase.
What It Means For South Korea
For South Korea, nights like this reinforce a clear truth. When Son is sharp, the team’s ceiling rises. His scoring carries obvious value. His gravity does, too. Defenders shade toward him, which opens the opposite wing for switches and isolates full backs who cannot cover both options. The assist for the backheel illustrated how his presence creates a second wave of possibilities. He attracts, delays, and releases. That is leadership expressed in touches.
Lessons For Young Forwards
A long career is built on ordinary actions done at a high level. Son excels at them.
- Scan before receiving: He checks the goalkeeper and nearest defender early. That is why he can finish from difficult angles without looking rushed.
- Choose the simplest pass that unlocks the best idea: The assist owed its beauty to restraint. He passed into a space rather than forcing a spectacular ball.
- Sprint both ways: The play after the play matters. Teammates trust forwards who recover with conviction.
- Protect your strengths with habits: Two-footed finishing does not happen by accident. Repetition in training makes it automatic under pressure.
- Keep emotion useful: Celebrate, reset, and get back to work. Flow follows routine.
A Human Connection At The Heart Of High-Level Football
Coaching is technical and human. The best relationships combine both. Pochettino speaks about Son with warmth because they have traveled through tough spells and good ones together. The shared memory bank is full of mornings when finishing drills went long, afternoons when match plans were rehearsed again, and evenings when the work paid off. That is why a simple sentence could carry so much weight in New Jersey. It touched the football and the friendship.
Conclusion
On a summer night in New Jersey, Son Heung-min delivered another reminder of how world class looks in real time. One precise finish from a difficult angle. One intelligent assist that sparked an audacious backheel. Around those two moments lived the running, the pressing, and the small choices that separate elite forwards from the rest. Mauricio Pochettino’s description of Son as “like my son” did not arrive as nostalgia. It read as a coach identifying the traits he wants to see in every player who steps into his team. Professional habits. Positional clarity. Emotional composure. The bond they forged years ago still informs how they both view the game.
As Son settles into life at LAFC, his influence will be felt in tactical schemes and in training standards. As Pochettino guides his group, he can point to a living example of what he asks for. And as supporters replay the goals from New Jersey, they can see in those clips a distilled version of the relationship that produced them: a forward who knows where to go and how to finish, and a coach who helped him become the player who always seems to arrive at the right time.