By HyunCheon Kim


Lee Young-Pyo, a famous South Korean soccer player, is coming to Boston to have a match with the New England Revolution. He is a former member of the Korea Republic national football team and currently plays for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC in Major League Soccer (MLS). The game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and New England Revolution will be held at 7:30 PM on Saturday May 12th at Gillette stadium in Foxborough, MA.

For Lee and his Korean fans in New England, the New England Revolution team, who hosts the upcoming game, has prepared a special event called “Korean Heritage Night”. During the break time between the first and second half of the game, there will be a Taekwondo demonstration. Also, Korean fans will be able to buy tickets with a special discount and the first 300 buyers will get a headband with Taegukgi on it. These great deals provide an extra reason for Korean fans to cheer Lee.
Tim Francis, an Account Executive at New England Revolution, said, “Wishing that more Koreans would come watch the game, we decided to organize ‘Korean Heritage Night’. The tickets will be sold on sale only for Koreans.”

As Lee joined the Vancouver Whitecaps in the beginning of this year, he received both expectations and concerns from a lot of his fans. One of his great advantages is his abundant experience in Europe; however, people considered that his strengths and skills will be weakened because is now getting into his mid-30s and his skills may have been dulled since he has rested for 6 months after the game with Al-Hilal FC of Saudi Arabia last June.

However, starting from the opening game of MLS, Lee has been a highly active player as both offense and defense. Due to his great performance, the Vancouver Whitecaps succeeded by recording 8 points with 2 wins and 2 ties from the opening game throughthe fourth. The team was ranked the lowest, but as Lee started to play for them, they have been in the lead around the West side.
Before the match with the New England Revolution in Boston, Lee plays against Columbus Crew on April 28th in Ohio and against San Jose Earthquake on May 5th in Vancouver.

Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional soccer league founded in 1996 with the U.S. hosting the 1994 World Cup. In the beginning, 10 football clubs (FC) started the league and currently there are 16 American FCs and 3 Canadian FCs, which divide into the Eastern Conference (10 FCs) and the Western Conference (9 FCs) depending on the region each FC is located in. The MLS season runs fromMarch to November.

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ⓒ 보스톤코리아(http://www.bostonkorea.com), 무단전재 및 재배포 금지