Sonny silences detractors with brace in pre-World Cup friendly

Son Heung-min celebrates after scoring a goal against Trinidad and Tobago during the teams' friendly football match at BYU South Field in Provo, Utah, May 30. Yonhap

PROVO, United States — Korean captain Son Heung-min arrived in World Cup training camp in Utah this month without a goal for Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) in the current Major League Soccer season, having recorded nine assists in 13 matches.

Amid persistent whispers that he had lost a step at age 33, Son claimed earlier in camp that he wasn't worried about the state of his game. Son, who did have a couple of goals from the Concacaf Champions Cup earlier in the year, even joked that he was saving goals for the World Cup.

Son didn't even wait until the tournament to return to his scoring ways.

Son grabbed a brace to lift Korea past Trinidad and Tobago 5-0 in their pre-World Cup friendly match Saturday at BYU South Field in Provo, Utah.

Despite having the ball the majority of the time, Korea continued to be frustrated by their opposing defense. Son finally gave his team the lead in the 40th minute, deftly redirecting home a cross from Kim Moon-hwan.

Kim was wide open on the right side of the box when he rolled the ball toward the goalmouth. Son quickly got to his spot past two defenders and got his right foot on the ball to beat goalkeeper Jabari Brice.

Bae Jun-ho then drew a foul in the box from Dante Sealy two minutes later, and Son scored the ensuing penalty for his second goal of the game.

It was Son's first two-goal effort for Korea since a World Cup qualifier against Singapore in June 2024.

Son nearly had his first international hat trick since September 2015 when he struck the left goal post with his patented, left-footed curler in the 57th minute.

Son was subbed out a few minutes later for Cho Gue-sung, who scored twice himself in this convincing win.

The players donned unfamiliar numbers for this match, a common practice by nations as they try to fool their World Cup opponents ahead of the big tournament. Son ditched his No. 7 for No. 13, for instance.

But everything else about Son's game felt familiar — the way he moved around and took shots with confidence.

Son said Saturday's victory was an important boost to his team's collective confidence.

"As important as individual skills are, I think confidence is just as crucial," Son said. "I think our confidence may have been low after losing twice in March (to Ivory Coast and Austria), and we will try to build on this and keep the momentum going.

"Regardless of opponents, it's not easy to win 5-0," Son added. "So I hope people don't take this for granted. The players deserve credit and I think we're moving in the right direction."

Son also said he didn't want to get too carried away after beating a heavy underdog.

"We should all try to stay humble. We won 5-0 today but we have also lost 5-0 before," Son said. "We have even bigger matches awaiting us and we shouldn't get too excited when we win or too disappointed when we lose. We have to fix whatever we need to fix going forward."

Asked what specific things that Korea will have to fix before the World Cup, Son said those discussions will stay in the locker room.

"It's something we will talk about internally because we want to keep this group tight," he said. "I don't think it does us any good to discuss whatever we need to improve publicly."

With his vintage showing, Son also resumed his assault on the record books. Son is now up to 56 international goals, two behind former star Cha Bum-kun for the all-time Korean men's lead.

Son may well break that record when Korea play El Salvador for their final pre-World Cup tuneup on Wednesday, back at BYU South Field.

Son stuck to his script and said personal stats aren't as important to him as team victories.

"I think it's more important for me to play well for the team, and it doesn't always have to be about scoring goals," Son said. "Making sacrifices for the team and doing whatever the team needs is my favorite thing to do, something that I've valued more than anything throughout my career."