[스포츠한국 김성수 기자] Son Heung-min (30, Tottenham Hotspur) scored two consecutive goals in the league and reported the 101st goal in the English Premier League (EPL). ‘Idol’ Cristiano Ronaldo (38) has only ‘2 goals’ left to record EPL goals.
Tottenham lost 2-3 despite Son Heung-min’s opening goal in the home game against Bournemouth in the 31st round of the 2022-2023 EPL held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England at 11:15 pm on the 15th (hereinafter Korean time). With 7 league games left, they remained in 5th place (53 points), 3 points less than 4th place Manchester United (56 points), even after playing 2 more games, and a dark cloud over the fight for 4th place, the last line to advance to the Champions League.
Son Heung-min played full-time that day and scored the team’s opening goal. After scoring his 100th EPL goal against Brighton on the 8th, he scored two consecutive goals against Bournemouth in the league.
In the 14th minute of the first half, Clement Lenglet sent a long pass from the rear, Ivan Perisic penetrated and received it from the left inside the Bournemouth penalty box. Tottenham took a 1-0 lead as Son Heung-min finished Perisic’s cutback pass with his left foot in front of the goal. Heung-Min Son’s 8th goal in the league and 101st goal in EPL history, scoring two goals in a row.
Against Brighton just before, acting coach Stellini made a change. Previously, if Son Heung-min was involved in carrying the midfield ball, before Brighton, Dejan Kulusevski came down and became a link, and Son Heung-min and Kane virtually stood as two tops. Son Heung-min, who received a more aggressive role, received a cutback pass with his left foot from Perisic, who was like a shackle, and reported a score with a right-footed kick shot from the left ‘Son Heung-min zone’ in front of the opponent’s box. It was an emotional EPL 100 goal moment.
And on this day against Bournemouth, Tottenham came out with the same attack form as against Brighton. Son Heung-min proved without a doubt that his sluggishness was due to his location.
With this, Son Heung-min, who scored 101 EPL goals, came close to his ‘Idol’ Ronaldo’s record of EPL goals by only 2 goals. Ronaldo played for Manchester United from 2003 to 2009 and 2021 to 2022, scoring 103 goals in 236 EPL matches. Ronaldo is currently playing for Al Nasr in the Saudi League, so he cannot shake off Son Heung-min’s pursuit on his own.
Son Heung-min will also score double-digit EPL scores for 7 consecutive seasons if he adds two more goals in the league. Starting from the 2016-2017 season, the second season at Tottenham, it is Son Heung-min who scored more than 10 league goals until the 2021-2022 season immediately before he took the top scorer with 23 goals.
The stones that were steadily piled up suddenly became a magnificent tower. He is Son Heung-min, who has left only two steps to reach the goal record of the player he admired.