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Written by

Alla Zakarian

22-08-2018 | 19:22 Football
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Son Heung-Min: Between a rock and a hard place

Tottenham agreed to allow Heung-min Son to play in the Asian Games. The player expected to miss the first four games of the Premier League season, but he stayed in England for the opening day win over Newcastle United, however, meaning he would only miss a maximum of three Spurs matches. There is a good chance that the win over Fulham could be the only game he misses.

In case you missed

South Korean men are required by law to start participating in military service by the age of 27, typically for a duration of 21 months. Son is 26-year old, he would have to enrol in the military within the next year. However, the Spurs forward would be able to be exempt from the service if he were to win gold with South Korea during this year’s Asian Games. Bronze or Silver would not be enough. "I should obviously say sorry," Son told Goal. "I'll be away from the team for quite some time, so I want to say sorry to the manager and my team-mates. "I'm sure my team-mates will be able to fill the void sufficiently, but I still feel sorry about having to leave the team during the season. "So it's obviously important for me to prepare myself to sacrifice for the team as soon as I return [from the Asian Games]."

Asian Games

Son bagged the only goal of the game as Korea beat Kyrgyzstan in their final Group E match. Kore had got off to the perfect start, thrashing Bahrain 6-0 in their opening fixture, without Son. Korea fell to a shock 1-0 defeat to Malaysia, a team 114 places below them in the FIFA world rankings. South Korea head coach Kim Hak-bum admitted that he made a tactical error by not starting with his best players for the match. On Heung Min’s limited playing time, Hak-bum said he has only been with the squad for a few days. “I apologise to all Koreans for my blunder and the defeat. It is my mistake.” Korea finished with six points, as did Malaysia, and the way the tournament is run positions between teams on equal points are settled by the head=to-head result, which meant Malaysia topped the group, with South Korea as runners-up. The round of 16 clashes for South Korea will take place on Thursday, August 23 against Iran.

Why you would not want to miss Korea VS Iran game

Do you remember how they participated in the World Cup in Russia this summer? Iran is nearly ended the Portugal National Team’s race in the group stage. And South Korea ended defensive champions Germany’s dreams to become champions two times in a row. Iran are ranked 32nd in the world, with Korea 25 places below them in 57th. South Korea and Iran have faced each other 34 times, with Iran winning 15 and Korea 12. However, Korea have not won any of their last nine games against Iran, losing five and drawing four. The last time the two teams met in the Asian games was in the semi-final in 2002. The match ended goalless, with Iran winning 5-3 on penalties.   Son and South Korea would be heading home, meaning the frontman would be back in time to face Manchester United on Monday. And now Son Heung-Min between a rock and a hard place: Fight until the end for the country and exempt from military service or be back in time to face Manchester United.

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