‘Mask’ Son Heung-min warms up for EPL return…16-minute Friendlies sortie

Tottenham draw 1-1 with Nice
Boxing Day begins on the 26th

Son Heung-min (30), who coached the round of 16 of the Korean Soccer World Cup, improved his form by participating in a friendly ahead of his return to the English Premier League (EPL).

Tottenham drew 1-1 in a friendly against OGC Nice (France) held at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England on the morning of the 22nd (Korean time). Tottenham took the lead through Matt Doherty’s goal 21′ into the first half, but Antoine Mente equalized 2′ into the second half.

On the 13th of last month, the EPL match against Leeds United was the last official match, Tottenham tested the sense of the game through a friendly match (4-0 win) against Motherwell (Scotland) and Nice on the 9th during the Qatar World Cup.

After returning to Tottenham, Son Heung-min missed team training for the last two days with fever and it was unclear whether he would play against Nice, but he was included in the substitute list and prepared for the match. Son Heung-min, who trained wearing a mask in his first training session after returning, released his body without a mask on this day, raising expectations for the “mask release”. However, as he was substituted in the 29th minute of the second half, he came on after wearing a mask with the help of Davinson Sanchez. Son Heung-min added sharpness to Tottenham’s attack by digging into the space behind his opponent with his unique sprint. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the attachment point.

Tottenham will enter the ‘Boxing Day’ of the end-of-year and New Year holidays, starting with the 17th round of the EPL against Brentford on the night of the 26th. The EPL match against Aston Villa on 1 January, Crystal Palace on 5 and the FA Cup 3rd round against Portsmouth on the 7th will be followed breathlessly.

Tottenham’s situation is complicated. England captain Harry Kane, who lost a penalty kick in the quarter-final against France at the World Cup in Qatar and suffered a yoke of defeats, has not attended team training to date, but has attended the match against Nice from the grandstand. Hischarlisson (Brazil), who also played in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, has suffered a hamstring injury and is about to undergo a thorough examination. Rodrigo Bentancourt, back from injury, should return from the match against Aston Villa. For this reason, Tottenham proposed top threes of Brian Hill, Harvey White and Dejan Kulusevski as starting strikers that day.

Oliver Skip and Jed Spencer, who exhibited similar feverish symptoms to Son Heung-min, were completely dropped from the list. Hugo Lloris, Ivan Perisic and Christian Romero, who played on the World Cup stage until last weekend, have yet to return. It is a story that there is a high possibility that Son Heung-min should play the role of the boy’s head.

Reporter Hong Jimin