DOHA (AFP) – South Korea’s Asian Cup performances have been dubbed “zombie football” but Son Heung-min says the way they keep coming back to life shows the team have the spirit to go all the way.
The Koreans rose from the dead again in late Friday’s 2-1 quarter-final victory over Australia, with Son winning a 96th-minute penalty that Hwang Hee-chan converted to take the game to extra time.
Skipper Son then sealed the win with a sublime free-kick in the 104th minute to send South Korea into a semi-final against Jordan.
Jurgen Klinsmann’s men have only won one game inside 90 minutes in Qatar, and Hwang’s penalty was the fourth time in five games that they have scored in second-half injury time.
Korean media have compared the team to undead movie monsters but Tottenham’s Son said it was a testament to their resilience.
“Whatever names people give it isn’t important – one thing I can say for sure is that this is just helping us stick together even more,” he said.
“Playing 120 minutes is painful, it’s not easy. But the spirit the boys are showing is making us stick together.
“I can say with confidence that our strength is that we are all together,” he added.
South Korea are trying to win the Asian Cup for the first time in 64 years – and they seem intent on doing it the hard way.
They needed an injury-time own goal to salvage a point against Jordan in the group stage, before conceding a last-gasp equaliser in a 3-3 draw with Malaysia.
They beat Roberto Mancini’s Saudi Arabia on penalties in the last 16 after scoring a 99th minute equaliser to take the game to extra time.
South Korea’s squad boasts Europe-based stars such as Son, Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in and Bayern Munich’s Kim Min-jae.
Klinsmann said he wants his team to show their quality from the start.
“We go a goal down and then we all know we can only go forward,” said the German.
“Then they start to speed things up, they start to create chances, they start to have movement off the ball that we always want to see from the beginning.”
