South Korea captain Son Heung-min will look to fire his team to a win over Bafana Bafana in the early hours of Thursday morning.
There is a strange, painful beauty in loving a football player who holds the power to break your heart on the grandest stage of all.
For us Tottenham Hotspur fans who have spent years admiring Son Heung-min, marvelling at his work ethic, his smile, and his lethal finishing, his presence at a Fifa World Cup is usually a joy to watch. But as Bafana Bafana prepare for their massive, must-win Group A showdown against South Korea, that admiration has turned into pure dread for this Spurs fan at the foot of the African continent.
The equation facing South Africa in Thursday morning’s clash is brutally simple: win, or start booking flights home. Hugo Broos’ side kept their campaign alive thanks to Teboho Mokoena’s ice-cool penalty against the Czech Republic, but the safety nets are gone.
To survive and qualify for the next round, Bafana must be flawless at the back and not gift any goals to the opposition, much like they did in the matches against Mexico and the Czechs. But, more than anything, they need Son to have a quiet day at the office.
