LAFC
Son and Bouanga, Year Two: LAFC Are Third in the West and Peaking at the Right Time
Standings current as of Aug. 26, 2026
LAFC sit third in the Western Conference at 10-7-5, behind Vancouver and Houston, with the MLS Cup Playoffs approaching.
They also came out of the seven-week World Cup break looking like the hottest team in the league — and the two players responsible are the same two who reshaped this club a year ago.
The Heung-Bu Duo is better in year two
Son Heung-min arrived in August 2025 on an MLS-record transfer fee north of $26 million and changed what LAFC was almost immediately.
Year two has been about the partnership rather than the arrival. Since the World Cup pause, Son has scored in every game — adding his first three regular-season goals of the year alongside a league-best 10 assists. He made his first MLS All-Star Game appearance this summer.
Denis Bouanga is the other half. He passed Carlos Vela as LAFC’s all-time leading scorer, won the Golden Boot in 2023 with 20 goals, and has spent this season as one of the league’s most productive attackers.
The nickname their partnership earned last year — the Heung-Bu Duo, after the Korean folk tale of two brothers rewarded for their generosity — has stuck because the chemistry was, by Bouanga’s own description, automatic from the start.
Marc Dos Santos inherited a lot
Steve Cherundolo announced midway through 2025 that it would be his last season on the touchline, having previously delivered the 2022 MLS Cup in the Gareth Bale era.
Marc Dos Santos took over for 2026, and the post-break stretch suggests the message has landed. After a 4-0 win over Sporting Kansas City at BMO Stadium — a fourth straight victory — he pointed to the work done during what amounted to a second preseason, and to the difficulty of integrating players who returned from World Cup duty on different timelines.
He also flagged what was coming: a demanding August with Leagues Cup fixtures stacked on top of league play.
What’s actually at stake
LAFC are chasing three things at once.
A second MLS Cup, after the 2022 title.
A fifth straight top-four finish, which would extend a run no other club in the league has matched.
A fifth consecutive season reaching at least the conference semifinals — the same distinction, and the same exclusivity.
That’s the argument for taking this club seriously regardless of where it finishes the regular season: nobody else has been this consistently deep, this consistently.
The recent history is a warning
Last year ended in Vancouver, on a triple post and a set of star-crossed penalty kicks — a playoff run extinguished by margins rather than by being outplayed.
The year before that, LAFC and Inter Miami both topped their conference tables and both were knocked out before the conference finals. In MLS, very little is guaranteed once the single-elimination and best-of-three formats begin.
Which cuts both ways. LAFC may not win the Supporters’ Shield. They are also not a team anyone in the Western Conference wants to draw.
What has to happen
- Hold or improve the seed. Vancouver at 40 points and Houston at 38 are ahead; San Jose, Dallas and St. Louis are bunched at 33 right behind. Third place is not safe.
- Manage the load. Leagues Cup plus league play in August is exactly how good teams arrive at the playoffs tired.
- Keep Son creating. A league-best assist total from a player signed to score is the season’s most interesting statistical wrinkle.
- Bouanga in the box. The postseason version of this team needs him finishing what Son creates.
Four years of conference semifinals and one MLS Cup. The roster is built for a second, and the two players it’s built around are playing their best football of the season at the moment it starts to count.
LA Sports Wire covers LAFC news, schedules and match coverage all season. See the LAFC schedule for kickoff times and broadcast info, or the MLS Western Conference standings for the current table.