Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-Min left his club’s camp in London and took a trip to Indonesia, for Asian Games.
After being granted permission by Tottenham to pursue a gold medal that would earn him an exemption from Military service, the 26-year-old finally made his appearance as a 57th-minute substitute in Korea’s second group game.
In their first group game, Korea beat Bahrain with 6-0 score. But in the second game, they were defeated by Malaysia with 2-1.
Korea Head coach Kim Hak-bum admitted that he made a tactical error by not starting with his best players for the match.
“I apologise to all Koreans for my blunder and the defeat. It is my mistake.
“But I believe we will still go through. We, however, will have a difficult pathway in the knockout stages as we have lost a group match,” he said.
On Heung-min’s limited playing time, Hak-bum said he has only been with the squad for a few days.
The last group stage game for Korea was against Kyrgyzstan. And Son Heung Min captained his national team starting from the first minutes. Son has scored a goal in a 63th minute of the game to secure his team’s win over Kyrgyzstan.
With 6 points Korea is in the second place in the E group. Malaysia is in the first place.
The top two teams from each group and the four best-performing third-placed teams will advance to the last-16 stage.