SON HEUNG-MIN turned the air blue as emotions ran away with him during the most dramatic moment of his international career.
South Korea’s captain told his team-mates how ‘f*****g’ proud he is at the way they fought back from the brink in the World Cup.
An injury time goal on Friday set up by the Tottenham striker secured a shock 2-1 win over Portugal but there was still an anxious wait for the other Group H game to finish before qualification to the last 16 was confirmed.
Son will now lead his team against awesome Brazil in Monday’s knockout game.
And he said: “It was the longest six minutes of my life. But in the circle we were really positive. The guys were saying, we deserve this.
“Then I said, ‘look whatever happens, even if Uruguay score one more goal, I’m f***ing proud of this team and very happy we gave everything, we’ll see what is going to happen’.
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“And everyone was just waiting but those minutes were long minutes.
“Everyone gave everything and I’m very happy and very proud to me with this team.
“We are spending more time together than with our friends and families. In the camp, the guys have already been here for more than a month so we are close, really close.
“I’m grateful because those who didn’t play could be really sad but they didn’t show their disappointment, they gave everything on the bench to support us and this makes a huge difference to be one team. I’m happy and grateful to lead this team. It makes a huge difference.”
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The South Koreans are renowned for their demure ways and politeness, making Son’s X-rated address even more remarkable.
They will be huge underdogs against the five-times world champions but now it is down to a straight fight in a one-off game there is the chance to land one fatal punch.
South Korea’s Portuguese coach Paulo Bento will be back in the dugout after serving a one match touchline ban.
He was given a red card by English ref Anthony Taylor for his outburst at the end of the second group game when his team was not given time to push for an equaliser against Ghana.
Son said: “The boss is really important. We didn’t want his last game to be not on the bench so the players knew we had to give everything to be all together so until yesterday we were training together. We trained well. He believed in us and in his coaching staff so it was perfectly done by him.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
