Son Heung-min’s Seventh Free-Kick Masterpiece Signals the Rise of a New Korean Dead-Ball Specialist

By the time Son Heung-min’s right foot wrapped itself around the ball in Daejeon, even before it dipped wickedly into the far corner, there was a sense of inevitability. This wasn’t only a captain dragging his team through a difficult evening, nor merely a decisive moment in a tight match. It felt like confirmation of something deeper: that Son has quietly become Korea’s next great dead-ball specialist, adding a ruthlessly efficient weapon to an already complete attacking toolkit.

His seventh direct free-kick goal for the national team – now joint-most in Korean A-match history – was more than a statistic. It was a statement. Even as he closes in on Cha Bum-kun’s all-time scoring record, Son is evolving again, sharpening a skill that has turned from secondary option into something close to a new trademark.

A Strike That Broke the Game Open

On 14 November at Daejeon World Cup Stadium, South Korea’s 2-0 win over Bolivia did not come easily. For long spells, Hong Myung-bo’s side controlled possession but struggled to unpick a compact, disciplined Bolivian block. Chances came in flashes rather than waves. Transitions were scrappy. The visitors threatened on the counter. It was exactly the sort of friendly that can drift away from a superior side.

Then, 12 minutes into the second half, came the moment that changed everything.

Hwang Hee-chan won a free-kick on the left edge of the penalty area – an awkward angle on paper, too wide for a conventional shot, too central for a routine cross. Unless, of course, you have Son Heung-min standing over the ball.

One measured run-up, one clean swing, one vicious, arcing trajectory. The ball sailed over the wall and bent away from the goalkeeper, kissing the inside of the far post on its way in. It was a goal of exquisite precision, eerily reminiscent of the free-kick he scored for LAFC against FC Dallas in August, later voted MLS Goal of the Year – same zone, same right-footed whip, same air of inevitability.

Korea would add a second late on through Cho Gue-sung, returning to the national team after a long injury lay-off, but the night belonged to Son’s strike. It was the kind of moment that demolishes an opponent’s belief in a heartbeat, as Bolivia coach Óscar Villegas more or less admitted afterwards, noting that the game had been balanced until a single free-kick tilted it decisively Korea’s way.

“Set Pieces Can Be a Powerful Weapon”

Son’s post-match reflections sounded less like a star basking in a highlight reel and more like a captain delivering a tactical debrief.

“These days opponents analyse us so much,” he said. “So there are going to be games where our attacking patterns don’t come off. We also defended their attacks well, but there is no such thing as an easy game in football.

“The pitch conditions were not 100%, so it was frustrating that we couldn’t fully play the style we wanted. In those situations, set pieces can become a powerful weapon. It’s not just me – we have players who are strong in the air and players with good delivery. Sometimes, when performance feels a bit off, winning like this is actually more important.”

The context around the game mattered. With the 2026 North and Central America World Cup draw approaching, Korea are fighting to secure their place in Pot 2. Beating Bolivia was less about friendly bragging rights and more about ranking mathematics and long-term planning.

“At half-time, the manager spoke to us very strongly about the importance of the result,” Son explained. “Everyone agreed. As captain, I told the team that this was exactly the sort of moment when we needed to stay calm. Hee-chan said the same. That shared mentality helped us in the second half.”

Chasing Cha Bum-kun – But Not Obsessing Over It

Son’s goal in Daejeon was his 54th for Korea, scored in his 139th A-match. He now sits just four goals behind Cha Bum-kun’s national record of 58. 

The narrative writes itself: the LAFC forward, who has already overtaken both Cha and Hong Myung-bo for most A-match appearances by a Korean player, now closing in on the goal-scoring mark of a man widely regarded as the greatest Asian footballer of his generation. Yet Son has been consistently reluctant to frame his career in those terms.

“When you work hard every single day, the records end up in front of you,” he said. “But I try not to focus on the ‘most goals’ record itself. I’m thinking much more about how I can help the team within our plan for the World Cup, and how I can support my team-mates. That’s the priority.”

It is a familiar refrain from Son, but it gains weight as the numbers pile up. The irony is that his refusal to obsess over statistics is exactly what allows him to keep rewriting them.

The Evolution of a Dead-Ball Specialist

For much of his career, Son’s free-kicks were an occasional threat rather than a defining skill. His reputation was built on pace, timing of runs, devastating cuts inside from the left, and clinical finishing off either foot. The set pieces were a bonus.

That picture is changing.

With his seventh direct free-kick goal for the national team in Daejeon, Son moved level with Ji So-yun for the most in Korean A-match history. The samples are no longer isolated highlights but part of a pattern: improved technique, more consistent body shape, greater control over trajectory and dip.

It’s the kind of late-career evolution you see in the game’s elite. When physical profiles subtly shift, the very best players respond by adding new, repeatable ways to decide tight matches. For Son, set pieces look increasingly like that next frontier – the veteran striker discovering a new, devastating breaking ball.

Where once he was simply the face of Korean football, he now looks like its primary insurance policy in high-stakes, low-space matches: a player who can win a game from 25 yards when everything else is stuck.

Cho Gue-sung’s Return and a Century for Lee Jae-sung

Son was at pains not to let his own milestone overshadow those around him.

He reserved special praise for Cho Gue-sung, who came off the bench to score Korea’s second – his first goal for the national team since a long, gruelling battle with injury and complications from surgery. 

“Seeing Gue-seong come back healthy and score was a huge boost for the squad,” Son said. “He showed that even when you go through a difficult period, good times will return. I think it gave everyone great energy.”

There was also a moment of genuine emotion when speaking about his close friend Lee Jae-sung, who was honoured on the night for joining the FIFA Century Club with his 100th A-match.

“Jae-sung is one of the most important players we have – someone who sacrifices himself for the team, on and off the pitch,” Son said. “We’ve been playing together since we were 16, at school tournaments. He went to Jeonbuk Hyundai, I went to Europe early, but I always followed his career.

“I still remember his debut against Uzbekistan here in Daejeon – the combinations we had, the movements we shared. I hope he continues to receive more recognition and praise.”

It was a reminder that this generation of Korean players is not a loose collection of individual stars but a group with deep, shared history.

A More Complete Version of Son Heung-min

Strip away the emotion of the night and what remains is a highly practical reality for Korea ahead of 2026: they possess a forward who, at 33, might be as complete as he has ever been.

Son is now:

• The undisputed leader of the dressing room.

• The team’s primary attacking reference point in open play.

• A near-record international goalscorer.

• And, increasingly, a genuine dead-ball specialist with a proven track record of deciding games from set pieces.

For a national team entering a World Cup cycle where fine margins will define whether they are merely competitive or truly dangerous, this matters.

The free-kick against Bolivia wasn’t just a beautiful goal in an autumn friendly. It was another data point in the story of a player who refuses to stand still, who keeps adding layers to his game even when his legacy is already secure.

If this is the version of Son Heung-min that Korea takes into the 2026 World Cup – captain, creator, finisher, and dead-ball executioner – then the rest of the world will be reminded of something Bolivia and Óscar Villegas have just learned the hard way: against this Korea, and this Son, one foul in the wrong area might be all it takes.