Son Heung-min Benched as South Korea Faces World Cup Knockout Uncertainty

GUADALUPE, Mexico, June 25 (Yonhap) -- For the first time in his international career that started in 2010, Son Heung-min began a World Cup match on the bench Wednesday. The veteran admitted to feeling helpless, as South Korea struggled to generate much offense in the first half against South Africa in their final Group A match in northeastern Mexico.

Son was subbed in at the start of the second half, with the match still scoreless. But then South Africa scored in the 63rd minute and hung on to win by 1-0 to book their first-ever knockout spot.

South Korea, relegated to third place, now must wait for the rest of the group stage to play out to see if they will be among the eight best third-place teams to qualify for the knockouts.

"It's so frustrating that the match didn't go the way we wanted it to, and we as players are obviously very disappointed," Son said. "I feel sorry to my teammates that I didn't give them much help on the pitch."

Son had been in the starting lineup in his 12 previous World Cup matches beginning at the 2014 tournament in Brazil. Hong Myung-bo, the current national team head coach, was also in charge 12 years ago during his first spell with South Korea.

Son revealed Hong had told him ahead of time that he would be held out of the starting lineup and said, "I don't really have anything to add to that."

Asked about his conversations with the starters during the first-half hydration break, Son said, "I tried to offer them the best help I could give from my perspective. I tried to keep things simple."

Son didn't think the sweltering conditions of Guadalupe affected South Korea's performance, noting that South Africa also played in the same situation.

"I think we have to consider the big picture and figure out where things went wrong," Son said. "There's no problem with the vibe in the locker room. It is frustrating when we try our best and the match still doesn't go well. No one is more upset than the players themselves. But I can honestly tell you that we've had absolutely zero issue with our team atmosphere."

As for South Korea's current plight of having to play the waiting game, Son said, "I personally didn't want to end up in this kind of situation, where we have to wait and see if we will reach the knockouts."

"It's disappointing that we didn't get the outcome we deserved, considering the amount of hard work we've done," he added. "But it's out of our hands now and we will have to accept our fate, whatever it will be."