Son Heung-min scores against Liverpool in 38 months

Jürgen Klopp, the coach of the defending champion of the English Premier League (EPL) Liverpool F.C., praised Tottenham Hotspur F.C.’s threatening counterattacks led by the team’s fast strikers, describing them as “monsters.” The player who found Liverpool’s net as Klopp watched Tottenham Hotspur’s quick switches between attack and defense was Son Heung-min.

With one goal behind Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur began its counterattack 33 minutes into the first half of the 2020-2021 EPL match held on Thursday. Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris handed the ball to midfielder Giovani Lo Celso who dribbled and passed it to Son behind the opponent’s defense player. Son entered the penalty box with the ball and scored with his right foot. It only took about 10 seconds for the ball to travel 84 meters from Lloris to the goal line. There was an issue raised about Son possibly being offside when receiving the ball from Lo Celso, but his goal was acknowledged based on the video assistant referee (VAR).

Despite Son’s outstanding performance of successfully leading his only shooting to a goal, Tottenham Hotspur lost to Liverpool 1-2 as Roberto Firmino scored the winning goal from a corner 45 minutes into the second half of the game. The goal came three minutes after Son who is great at assisting defense was replaced and left the field at the 42-minute mark of the second half. With the loss, Tottenham Hotspur’s ranking is down from first place to second place with 25 points while Liverpool leads the league with 28 points and no loss in the past 66 EPL matches (55 wins and 11 ties).


Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com