Will "Joker Son Heung-min" come out again, not the starting player, and coach Hong Myung-bo is still worried

*This content was translated by AI.

Ahead of the final mock test in preparation for the 2026 FIFA 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup, national soccer team coach Hong Myung-bo is also agonizing. The same is true of the use of Son Heung-min (Los Angeles FC), the ace and "captain" of the national team.

Son Heung-min is a mental support to the players and a huge burden to the opponent just by playing as well as his skills. This is why foreign media's eyes on Korea's 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup are also focused on Son Heung-min. It may be a natural trend to give Son Heung-min the maximum time to play by using him as a starter.

However, since last year, coach Hong Myung-bo has been making changes in how to use Son Heung-min. Rather than sticking to Son Heung-min's starting full season, he hinted at the possibility of using "Joker." Coach Hong said at the time of the announcement of the national team's roster in September last year, "Now it's not how long Son Heung-min plays, but at what point he plays a decisive role."

In fact, Son Heung-min was excluded from the start of the second half against Mexico, the second game away from the U.S., and was substituted at the start of the second half. In October, he played as a starter in both Brazil and Paraguay, but Hong explained after the match against Paraguay, which was his second game, "I thought of Son Heung-min playing in the second half, but there was an event before the game (the celebration of the most appearances in the A-match) and it was a good day, so I started." In other words, coach Hong has a steady plan to use Son Heung-min's Joker.

Naturally, the match between Ivory Coast and Austria, which will be virtually the last warm-up match before the announcement of the final entry for the World Cup, is also expected to be a big concern for coach Hong Myung-bo about whether Son Heung-min will start or not. It would also be meaningful to keep Son Heung-min on the field as long as possible, but coach Hong believes that maximizing Son Heung-min's skills, who is now quite old, can also be an option by adjusting the playing time.

At the same time, the atmosphere inside and outside the national team is also relieving Hong of the burden of using Son Heung-min as a Joker. Son Heung-min's recent one-top role in the national team is drawing attention from Oh Hyun-kyu (Besiktashi JK), who has been active since his recent transfer. Oh Hyun-kyu has had a large proportion of Son Heung-min's backup role, but now it is widely evaluated that he is confidently qualified as a main striker in the national team. This is why head coach Hong is considering the option of turning Son Heung-min into a wing forward rather than the front line.

On top of that, the flankers are virtually saturated. Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), Lee Jae-sung (Mines05), Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), Um Ji-sung (Swansea City), Bae Joon-ho (Stoke City) and Yang Hyun-joon (Celtic) can be on the side alone. Among them, Um Ji-sung and Yang Hyun-jun are likely to be put to the test as wingbacks, but they are not in a situation where available resources on the side are insufficient enough to insist on Son Heung-min's selection. In fact, unlike Son Heung-min, who has no meaning of "verification" ahead of the World Cup, the second term is still fiercely competitive and it is time to focus on experiments as broadly as possible.

The fact that Son Heung-min does not have a field goal in his team yet after the opening of this season and that he is not in his best condition due to symptoms of a cold can also be a source of concern for Hong. Earlier in September last year, Hong used Son Heung-min as a Joker during the match against Mexico (2-2 draw), and Son Heung-min served as a "game changer" to lead the game, which was trailing 0-1 at the time of input, to a 2-1 turnaround. Hong Myung-bo Team, which is undergoing convocation training in the UK, will face Ivory Coast at Milton Keynes, England, at 11 p.m. on the 28th (Korea Standard Time) and Austria at 3:45 a.m. on the 1st of next month in Vienna, Austria. Coach Hong's plan on how to use Son Heung-min can also be outlined through these two consecutive games.

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*This content was translated by AI.