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| South Korea's Son Heung-min, center, battles for the ball with Malaysia's Muhammad Safari Rasid, on ground, and Mohd Rizal Ghazali during their football game at the at Si Jalak Harupat Stadium in Bandung, Indonesia. AP-Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
South Korean football superstar Son Heung-min has attracted thousands of hate comments and jeers and then counter-trash talk on Instagram after Malaysia defeated its much higher FIFA-ranked opponent at the 2018 Asian Games.
The Tottenham Hotspur winger/forward from the Premier League drew plenty of online flak after South Korea, ranked 57th in FIFA, lost 1-2 to the 171st Malaysia in the Men's Group E preliminary round on Friday at Si Jalak Harupat Stadium in Bandung, Indonesia.
The Malaysians scored twice in the first half, with the Koreans able to score only a consolation goal after 87 minutes, near the end of the game. Son, 26, replaced Kim Jung-min at 57 minutes in an apparent bid by head coach Kim Hak-bum to even the score.
About 6,000 comments flooded Son's online page by Monday, lampooning him for the poor performance. Many comments attacked him personally, saying, "Noob Korea very weak, Malaysia 2-1 Korea kah kah kah," or asking him if he had come to Indonesia "only to lose."
Son has not reacted on his Instagram.
The onslaught, originally aimed at Son, spread to emotional clashes between different nationals trash-talking about other countries. Some comments in Korean, English and other languages blatantly attacked certain countries using such expressions as "poor" "famous player," and "inferior."
Some comments tried to calm the situation, reminding others that most of the hate comments "were written by teenagers" and cheering both countries for their performance.
Whereas Son's social network page was open to the public, Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan and goalie Song Bum-keun turned their social network windows to "private" to block visitors. Hwang missed more than a few opportunities to score, while Song's blunders allowed the Malaysians to score.
