Son Heung-Min scored his first World Cup goal for South Korea against Algeria on Sunday but the Bayer Leverkusen attacker said a heavy defeat rendered it meaningless as his country stares at a group stage exit.
“I cannot be happy about it (the goal),” Son said after the 4—2 loss which left Korea at the bottom of Group H.
Reaching the knockout phase is possible for Korea only with a large victory over Belgium in the last match, combined with Algeria failing to defeat Russia.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I really wanted to reach the last 16,” Son said. “But there are days when nothing comes together. It went totally wrong.” South Korea looked out of sorts from the beginning against Algeria and found themselves three goals down at half time. Son grabbed the next goal but this failed to spark a serious comeback.
“We were playing loosely from the beginning. We are here at a World Cup, where the best teams in the world play, and that’s not good enough,” he said.