Son Heung-min (Tottenham), the ‘captain’ of the Korean soccer team, participated in the game against Vietnam and rose to 7th place in the men’s national team history.
The Korean national soccer team, led by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, will play the second international match of October against Vietnam at Suwon World Cup Stadium at 8 p.m. on the 17th.
Klinsmann is aiming for his first three consecutive wins in today’s game, following a 1-0 win against Saudi Arabia in the second international match last September and a 4-0 win against Tunisia on the 13th.
Son Heung-min was named to the starting list and hit the ground running from the start. As a result, he achieved his 114th A match appearance, surpassing Cho Young-jeung (113 times) and becoming the sole 7th place in A match appearance record.
Son Heung-min took a break from the match against Tunisia to prevent injury due to condition issues, but in today’s game, he was named to the starting list and broke his record of appearances in the Korea A match.스포츠토토
Coach Klinsmann announced in an official press conference before the game the previous day, “I will decide on participation through the final training.” Fortunately, he appears to have recovered his condition.
Son Heung-min made his A match debut in a friendly match against Syria in December 2010, and joined Century Club (100 A match appearances) in a friendly match against Chile in June last year.
Korea’s all-time leading men’s national team player is Cha Bum-geun (retired) with 136 games.
Son Heung-min, who broke the appearance record, is also challenging the all-time scoring record.
Son Heung-min is currently ranked 3rd with a total of 37 goals in A matches. First place is Cha Bum-geun (58 goals) and second place is Hwang Seon-hong (50 goals). As they face Vietnam, a team that is weak in terms of power, there is a high possibility that they will narrow the distance to Hwang Seon-hong in today’s game.
Meanwhile, Son Heung-min also holds the record for scoring the most goals from direct free kicks in an A-match, with 5, and is the first player in an A-match to score three consecutive goals against non-Asian continental opponents.
He also continues to hold the record for the longest captaincy in Korean soccer history.
Son Heung-min, who wore the armband when former national team coach Paulo Bento was appointed in September 2018, has been serving as captain for about five years. On this day, he will take the field wearing the captain’s armband in the Vietnam game as well.