On Thursday night Son Heung-min will lead Tottenham out against Chelsea for a game vital to the north London club’s chances of finishing in the top four and securing Champions League football. Had the Spurs captain not headed to the Asian Cup in the middle of the season, it is possible his club would be closer to the promised land, not just because Ange Postecolgou would have had his top scorer available for those few weeks but also because the forward might well have been in better condition in the time since.
In England the discourse around mid-season continental tournaments focuses on the inconvenience for clubs as players head to Asia or Africa. Less is said about the physical and mental effect on those involved. Mohamed Salah, Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool must wish that the Egyptian had never reported for Africa Cup of Nations duty in January given the injury sustained and the loss of form since.
The Asian Cup in January and February was a particularly traumatic tournament for South Korea and the country’s biggest players. The pressure was on a team that had not lifted the trophy for 64 years. The run to the last four was more of a stumble under Jürgen Klinsmann’s chaotic “Zombie Football” and then, when everyone thought the Taeguk Warriors would get past Jordan and into the final, they lost 2-0. If that wasn’t bad enough it soon came out – in the Sun – that the day before the game Son had dislocated a finger in a training-camp scuffle with the team’s rising star, Lee Kang-in of Paris Saint-Germain. It became a huge issue in the frenzied Land of the Morning Calm, with Lee coming in for severe criticism and eventually heading to London to apologise to Son. It was a story not confined to the sports sections.
A little understanding should be given to those who leave for continental adventures mid-season. If they are big stars for big European clubs they are usually the same and more for their countries, with all the demands and pressures that entails. Son played for Spurs on New Year’s Eve, seven times for Korea from 6 January to 6 February, then for his club again on 10 February.
Klinsmann isn’t the first Korea coach seemingly determined to wring as much football juice out of Son as possible but with the first Asian Cup game against Bahrain won with more than 20 minutes remaining and a place in the second round secure with a group game to spare, Son staying on for every minute of all six tournament games in Qatar, including two extra times, seemed excessive (his seventh Korea appearance was a 45-minute run-out in a pre-Asian Cup friendly).
It is not just the physical strain. Players such as Son and Salah are the go-to guys for entire nations, the main men on and off the pitch. South Korea may not be a football country in the way, say, England is but the national team hold a more exalted position. The adulation is huge but so are expectations and pressure. After the Jordan loss, Son was so upset he could barely speak and it was no surprise that he hinted he had had enough.
Just four days later – it marks quite the contrast that after this summer’s European Championship final on 14 July, the Premier League starts on 17 August – there he was, fingers strapped and back in English Premier League action. He has not been as sharp since.
Hwang Hee-chan arrived at the Asian Cup in the top six of the Premier League goalscoring charts but with an injury. He made four appearances, not the first Korea star rushed back too quickly by a desperate national team coach. Only recently has he started to play regularly for Wolves again.
Kim Min-jae must have wished he was injured for Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final. The Bayern Munich defender had a bit of a nightmare in the 2-2 first-leg draw against Real Madrid, out of position for the first goal and giving away the penalty for the second.
Klinsmann – also out of his position a few days after the Jordan game – may have regarded the Son-Lee situation as a reason for Korea’s semi-final defeat but he never publicly threw his players as far under the bus as Thomas Tuchel. The Bayern manager described Kim, who was voted the best defender in Serie A last season as Napoli strolled to the title, as greedy and aggressive against Madrid. Kim can’t complain about too much playing time but was an automatic starter before going to Qatar and, soon after, was not.
Mid-season continental competitions may not be the only or even the biggest reason for late-season dips but a string of intense games in big tournaments that often end in crushing national disappointment and controversy must result in some kind of hangover. Yet it seems as if the remedy is very much, hair-of-the-dog-style, back to club action as soon as possible and a swift forgetting of the whole thing.
