To set the scene, it’s important we acknowledge that the match this article addresses was a friendly.

And, as such, it’s not like FC Edmonton is going to field any calls from the Canadian Premier League offices because of it.

But, two weeks ago, Korean midfielder Son Yongchan lived up to his “Smiling Assassin” nickname, picking up two yellows in a pre-season loss at Cavalry FC.

With that, he becomes an answer to a trivia question — “Who was the first CPL player sent off in a match, regular or pre-season?”

It’s pretty clear that, following an FC Edmonton training session in the week prior to the team’s trip to Punta Cana, that he’s not proud of that fact. At first, he said he didn’t want to answer questions about the cards … but, after a few minutes of chatting, he was gracious enough to field the inquiries about the fouls from this reporter.

And he made a pledge to not see red again.

“It’s part of the game,” Son said of the incidents. “I have to accept it and I have to learn from it. I would say that, for me, maybe it wasn’t a yellow card — the second one. But I will learn and I won’t get sent off anymore, that’s for sure. I have to be careful more.”

His coach, Jeff Paulus, had characterized the two tackles in question as “aggressive, but not dirty.”

And the coach also said that Son would need to adjust to officiating in North America — as he feels that maybe similar fouls committed in Asian leagues wouldn’t be penalized as harshly. As a player adjusts to playing in a new country, he must adjust to the styles of play and the way games are called. In the case of the Canadian Premier League, this is magnified, because the league is brand new and doesn’t have an established style of play or officiating standards.

Son said he was trying to be careful going into the second half of the Cavalry match.

“When you have a yellow card you know you have to be careful. And Coach Jeff told me at halftime ‘be careful.’ In my mind, I knew I had a yellow card, so I wasn’t going to go that hard, I didn’t want to get another yellow card.”

That’s just not how it worked out.

Before coming impressing the CPL coaches and brass at the Toronto stop of the Open Trials, Son played in India, Singapore and the Philippines. He played for Ceres, one of the top clubs in the Philippines. He’s well versed in south Asian football.

So, even though he’s played just one CPL pre-season match (or, well, a portion of a CPL pre-season match), he has some takes on the differences he sees in the emerging Canadian game.

“When I was playing in South Asia, I was playing with a top team over there, so many of my teammates were national-team players,” Son said. “They were technically very good. But, physically, I think the game is stronger here.”

And, even though Paulus has preached a quick-paced pressing style from day one to anyone who is willing to listen, and even though Cavalry coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. employed a high-press tactic against the Eddies, it will take a while for this country to break some stereotypes.

Son admitted that he was still expecting that a game in Canada might break down into hoof-ball.

“To be fair, people come here, people think it’s going to be long ball, long ball, kick the ball up the pitch and fight. But it’s not like that,” Son said. “It is strong, it is physical, but we play the game. It was much better than I expected. It’s not like a 1980s game. It’s growing.”

And, yes, as acknowledged above, all of this happened in a friendly.

But is any game that sees the two Alberta rivals face each other every truly a friendly?

“It was pretty good,” Son said. “But it was a rivalry match, even it was a friendly match. So there was a lot of intensity over there. I liked it. It was kind of tough.”