Son Heung-min saves his team against Liverpool with tie goal

Son Heung-min saved him team, Tottenham Hotspur, from a loss with a dramatic tie goal in his 300th game as the team’s player.

Tottenham Hotspur tied 2-2 against Liverpool in the 18th round English Premier League (EPL) game of the 2021-2022 season held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Monday. It was the first game of Tottenham Hotspur in about two weeks since the 15th round game against Norwich City when multiple players and staff members got infected with COVID-19. The team remained in the seventh position of the league with eight wins, two ties, and five losses.

Even though some local media suspected COVID-19 infection of Son, he started the game along with Harry Kane. Son made goal attempts from the beginning of the game and missed a one-on-one opportunity against Alisson Becker in the 18th minute of the first half. In the 29th minute of the second half with Tottenham Hotspur down 2-1, Son scored a left-foot equalizer when Liverpool’s goalkeeper poorly handled Harry Winks’s long pass outside the penalty box. With that, he scored a goal for three consecutive games. It was also his seventh goal in the league and he recorded eight goals and three assists in official games, including one goal and one assist in the UEFA Europa Conference League. “It was a fiercely contested game and I did my best,” said Son. “I was not able to utilized many opportunities and feel disappointed that we didn’t win.”

The EPL posted Son’s picture on the main page of its website and BBC gave 6.97 for Son’s performance, which is the highest among all players in both teams. Football.London reported that Son was very active from the beginning and that he put Liverpool in a difficult position even though he missed some opportunities.

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp who was complaining often about the referee’s decisions during the game was caught with a big laugh while talking to Son after the game. When Son was playing for Hamburg and Leverkusen in Germany, he was especially strong against Borussia Dortmund, which was managed by Klopp at the time. The manager gave Son a hug and comforted him when he cried after a loss at the UEFA Champions League final in 2019.

“Jurgen Klopp was certainly not best pleased with a very debatable refereeing performance but somehow Son Heung-min managed to get a laugh out of him.,” said the Empire of the Kop, a local media in Liverpool. “Despite this balled up anger within the German, he still had time to laugh and joke with the South Korean forward.”


hun@donga.com