South Korea’s midfielder Son Heung-min (in mask) trains with teammates at the Al Egla Training Site 5 in Doha, yesterday. AFP
Doha: South Korea’s star player Son Heung-min will be “different” in their FIFA World Cup Qatar group H clash against Ghana, coach Paulo Bento said yesterday.
The match will kick off at 4pm at the Education City Stadium today.
The Tottenham Hotspur forward played South Korea’s opening 0-0 stalemate against Uruguay on Thursday in a face mask following surgery to repair a fracture around his left eye.
“As far as Son is concerned, he was recently injured and he was also adapting, trying to feel comfortable with the face mask,” said the Portuguese tactician.
“First he needed to feel at ease with his teammates and afterwards with the opponents. The second game will be different.”
Bento knows how vital a fully-fit Son will be against the West African country who come off a narrow 3-2 defeat against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.
“He has already been able to play throughout the 90 minutes and as a team, we need to do our best so that we can take advantage of his skills,” Bento said.
Ghana players take part in a training session at Aspire training zone in Doha, yesterday. AFP
The Taegeuk Warriors in their first game lacked precision but the coach said it’s not a worry. “It’s completely normal to face some challenges during the first game,” Bento said.
He termed Ghana as a team strong in defence and attack but without dwelling much on the opponents he talked up his own team.
“We have also players that are playing in the Premier League,” he said.
“We know it will be a difficult game. We need to be up to the task such as we were in the first game and we expect that we will have better performances both individually and collectively.”
Ghana coach Otto Addo also had a word of praise for Son.
Talking to reporters Black Stars coach said he was looking forward to renewing a longstanding relationship with the player who has played more than 200 Premier League matches for Tottenham Hotspur.
The German-born Addo was in charge of the Under-19s at Hamburg SV when Son arrived at the club aged 16 in 2009.
“I really liked his character; he was a very hard-working player. I was the one who proposed him to the first team,” said Addo.
“He became so good because he worked hard for it. He’s gone on to have a great career and I’m happy he is healthy and able to play against us but we will stop him together as a team.”
Addo who earlier criticized the referee saying he offered a gift to Ronaldo in way of a penalty maintained his stance that his team were unlucky to lose against Portugal.
“With a little bit of luck we might well have got a draw. I am happy to have a team which is willing to learn and work hard every day to get better,” he added.
“We have a lot of respect for South Korea, but we know we can compete with them.”
When: Today at 4:00pm
Where: Education City Stadium (Capacity: 44,667)
Key stats:
- South Korea are the only Asian country to have reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, when they were co-hosts in 2002, while Ghana share the distinction of being one of three African countries to have gone furthest at the World Cup when they got to the quarter-finals in 2010.
- South Korea have been to more World Cups than any other Asian country with their trip to Qatar their 11th appearance, since the first in 1954. The last 10 have all been consecutive, since 1986.
- South Korea have met African opposition at the World Cup on three occasions - beating Togo in 2006, drawing with Nigeria in 2010 and losing to Algeria in 2014. Ghana’s only Asian opponent at a World Cup finals tournament was Australia in 2010, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
- Ghana made their first World Cup appearance in 2006 and are now competing at the finals for a fourth time. The Black Stars had won four Africa Cup of Nations titles before they qualified for their first World Cup.
Previous meetings:
Ghana have a 4-3 edge over South Korea in the win count of their past seven head-to-head clashes, all in friendly internationals. The two countries first met in 1982 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and last clashed in a friendly in the US ahead of the 2014 Brazil World Cup, which Ghana won 4-0 with a hat-trick from Jordan Ayew.
