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Son still leading Korea charge

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Son Heung-min, left, celebrates with teammate Hwang Ui-jo after Hwang's first goal during the international friendly match between South Korea and Uruguay at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap
Son Heung-min, left, celebrates with teammate Hwang Ui-jo after Hwang's first goal during the international friendly match between South Korea and Uruguay at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

By John Duerden

Son Heung-min's busy international year comes to an end on Tuesday as South Korea takes on Panama in Cheonan, 90 kilometers south of Seoul.

The Tottenham Hotspur forward, 26, was in Russia in June for the World Cup and in August and September went to Indonesia to help his team win gold at the Asian Games, securing exemption from impending military service.

As a reward for the English Premier League club releasing Son to play in Southeast Asia, Korea has agreed not to summon him for games in November. He will team up with the Taegeuk Warriors for the 2019 Asian Cup in January.

The team is full of confidence after a 2-1 win over Uruguay in Seoul on Friday _ Korea's first victory against the fifth-ranked South Americans after six losses and a draw.

Son missed a chance to increase his goal tally as his second-half penalty kick was saved by goalkeeper Fernando Muslera. Fortunately for the home team, Hwang Ui-jo was on hand to score off the rebound.

"We played a great game as a team to win, but personally, I still have a lot of room for improvement," Son said. "It hurt my pride to miss the penalty."

It was the second failure from the spot in succession for Son, who also hit the post against Costa Rica in September.
"I don't think I'll be taking any more penalties," he added.

In the end it did not matter as Korea took a morale-boosting win. Since coach Paulo Bento was appointed in August, Korea has beaten Costa Rica and Uruguay and drawn with Chile.

While all the games have been on home soil against teams far from home, the new Portuguese boss has started well and positively. Korea struggled to get the fast-paced attacking game that Bento likes going against Uruguay but the South Americans are notoriously difficult to play against and better teams than Korea have fallen foul of them plenty of times.

Son is impressed with the new coach.
"He gives specific instructions to players on how they should move in build-up situations," Son said. "During practices, he'll stop everything once he detects problems and he'll try to correct that on the spot. And the players have been trying to soak up as much as we can. He's been a great help."

Uruguay boss Oscar Tabarez has been with the team since 2006 and was impressed with the host.

"I believe South Korea has gotten stronger than they were at the 2018 World Cup," Tabarez said. "Son Heung-min is playing a game at the top level and he is showing good performances. I believe South Korea can grow further."

Panama, which lost all three games at the World Cup, is a much weaker opponent and the home fans in Cheonan will be expecting victory, but Bento wants to keep his focus on the Asian Cup and group games against China, the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan.

"We're still in the process of building our team philosophy, and I decided the starting lineup based on what I saw in training and the players' performance in recent matches," he said.
"We still have to see what this team can do in other matches and I'll later decide whether I should make changes or not."





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