Captain Son Heung-min's national team, who didn't stop despite his team's request for early return, is always No. 1 for me, Merry Christmas in advance!
Nov 19, 2025
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Hong Myung-bo won the last A match in 2025. South Korea won 1-0 with Lee Tae-seok (Austria Vienna)'s winning goal in a friendly match against Africa's 'Kangho' Ghana at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 18th. It was a long breath. There were trials but no failures. Hong Myung-bo made it to the World Cup finals for the 11th consecutive time in June.
It switched to the North Korea-China World Cup finals system in September. He recorded one win and one draw in the away game in the U.S., one win and one loss last month, and two consecutive wins in two straight A matches in November. Hong Myung-bo defeated Bolivia 2-0 on the 14th. Ghana also won on this day, and was placed in the 'Port 2' on its own. This is the first time Korea has been in Port 2 at the World Cup. The chances of belonging to that good group in the draw increased.
South Korea also succeeded in avenging the 2022 Qatar World Cup. At that time, they clashed in the second game, but lost 2-3. Cho Kyu-sung (Mit Willan) used a new era of his first multi-goal in the Korean World Cup, but failed to stop Mohamed Kudus (Tottenham).
Coach Hong also conducted an experiment against Ghana. Unlike the match against Bolivia, where he put forward four-back, he took out a three-back card. The best 11 also changed as many as eight players except for Son Heung-min (LAFC), Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), and Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich). Kwon Hyuk-kyu (Nant) made his A-match debut, and Song Bum-keun (Jeonbuk), who was behind Kim Seung-kyu (FC Tokyo) and Cho Hyun-woo (Ulsan), played for the first time in three years and four months. Jens Kastrov (Mönchengladbach) was also included in the starting list for the first time in four games.
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Son Heung-min, who scored the winning goal as the front-line striker in the match against Bolivia, played on the left wing on the day. However, he did not perform well until he was replaced in the 17th minute of the second half. Son Heung-min, who met in the mixed zone after the game, said "I'm happy that I finished well with the last two games of the year with a victory. There were many areas that needed to be improved both teamally and internally, and there were many environmental areas as well. It's a shame, but I hope those parts get better."
There is a reason why it was somewhat sluggish on this day. Son Heung-min said "I had a strong wall before the game. I think I got a sore throat because I fell accidentally during the game." Son Heung-min did his best even in this situation. As the Vancouver Whitecaps and the 2025 U.S. Major League Soccer Cup Western Conference semifinals are set to be held on the 23rd, the team was considered first despite LA FC's request for early joining. Son Heung-min said, `My team also asked me to come quickly, but I think the national team is always precious to me and the number one. Since it represents the country, I will return with gratitude and repay the team with a great performance."
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At the 2026 North Korea-China World Cup, which will be the last dance, Son Heung-min also opened up about the national team's performance. In particular, he explained in detail the frustrating attack development. He "I hope the ball always comes in when the strikers take the movement. That was lacking in the first half"I haven't played many national team games, and I can't say this, but I couldn't play bolder due to environmental issues." Those were definitely areas that needed to be improved. As (the performance) improved a little in the second half, I felt like I was breathing hard. Rather than questioning who did it wrong, I think the team members should be better together, and in the meantime, I think the midfielders did well enough in the first half to fight."
Son Heung-min did not forget to thank his fans. "I want to say thank you so much to those who came to the stadium in the cold weather. The weather has gotten colder during this convocation, so I would like to say this in particular. The players were cold, but the fans watching from outside must have felt the same way"I sincerely thank you for coming to the stadium and always giving me such good energy and supporting me. He has contributed greatly to the growth of our national team this year. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.'
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Finally, he said, `I don't think there will be an interview like this until March next year, but I hope you have a good Christmas and a happy new year"
Reporter Park Chan-joon vanbasten@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
