INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
South Korea's Son Heung-min is bearing the weight of expectation at the World Cup just as heavily as Mohamed Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo and
Even Lionel Messi, whose bid to add a World Cup to his career collection has become something of a communal objective for football, enjoys
the support of a star-studded Argentinian side, from Angel Di Maria to Javier Mascherano to Sergio Aguero
For Son and South Korea, the pressure is shared in the kind of unequal measure that perhaps only Salah would know with Egypt, before his own
tournament was hampered by injury
South Korea are teetering on the brink too, after a 1-0 defeat by Sweden left them needing at least a draw, and probably a win, against
Mexico on Saturday to keep any hopes of progressing from Group F alive
Son blamed himself for the opening loss
"I'm still disappointed about my performance," he said
"I feel very, very sorry for my team-mates because if we don't score, it's my fault, because I need to take the responsibility."
Responsibility is one take, pressure another
into the box, which fails to find a target man and the referee blows the whistle for half-time
keep the ball rolling to his defence as the Mexican loses the ball and Son starts an attack from the right flank but fails to get the
national anthems are done and we are just minutes away from the start of the crucial Group F fixture.20:15 IST: We are just 15 minutes away
Mexico.Son is a star in his home country, to the extent he has to wear a disguise when he leaves the house and Korean journalists are
employed in London, where they wait to speak to the forward after every Tottenham fixture in the Premier League
But for all the attention he receives, the 25-year-old, who moved to Germany when he was 16 and made his name at Hamburg and Bayer
Leverkusen, is humble, driven and immensely popular with his team-mates
He still lives in Barnet with his parents
His father, Son Woong-jung, is a former striker himself, whose professional career was cut short by injury
Tottenham's training ground, based nearby in Enfield, has housed Korean chefs, invited in by Son in the hope of ingratiating his
team-mates to bulgogi (barbecued beef), japchae (stir-fried noodles) and Samgyetang (a type of chicken soup).
