Sonny scores in return as S. Korea beat Kuwait for 4th consecutive win in World Cup qualifying

Captain Son Heung-min marked his international return with a goal, as South Korea defeated Kuwait 3-1 for their fourth consecutive victory in the ongoing World Cup qualification round in Kuwait City on Thursday.

Son converted a penalty that he had drawn himself at Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium during the teams' Group B match in the third round of the Asian qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

It was Son's 50th international goal, which put him in a tie for second place on the all-time South Korean list with former striker Hwang Sun-hong. Son is now eight behind the leader, Cha Bum-kun.

Son had missed South Korea's two World Cup qualifiers in October due to a hamstring injury.

Forward Oh Se-hun opened the scoring with a 10th-minute header, his second international goal in as many matches. Son's replacement in the second half, Bae Jun-ho, scored the 3-1 goal in the 74th minute, after Kuwait had cut into the South Korean lead at the hour mark.

South Korea improved to 13 points with four wins and a draw, as they continued to lead Group B at the halfway point of the third round. After starting the third round with a goalless draw against Palestine on Sept. 5, South Korea have won four matches in a row, by a combined score of 11-4.

The top two teams from each of the three groups in this phase will punch their tickets to the 2026 World Cup. South Korea have played at every World Cup since 1986.

Next up for the Taegeuk Warriors will be Palestine on Tuesday. Palestine will be the home team but the match will take place in Amman as the neutral venue. Palestine will play their home matches in a neutral site until further notice, due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

Son returned to the national team after missing the two previous World Cup qualifiers in October due to a hamstring injury. It also cost him a few matches with his Premier League club, Tottenham Hotspur, but the talisman came back earlier this month to log three appearances before traveling to Kuwait.

And the skipper showed no signs of rust in the early going, as South Korea quickly established control and never relinquished it in a dominant first half.

Oh put South Korea on the board with a header goal set up by Hwang In-beom's cross in the 10th minute. Defender Hasan Hamdan tried to box out Oh, but the towering South Korean striker jumped over the Kuwaiti player to score in his second consecutive international match.

Some seven minutes later, Son was taken down by Sami Al-Sanea in the box, after receiving a quick feed through the middle of the box from Lee Jae-sung at the tail end of a nifty passing play.

Son stepped up and found the bottom left corner with his right-footed shot to reach the half-century mark in goals.

Son nearly doubled down in the 27th minute when his right-footed effort sailed just over the top right corner of the target.

South Korea threatened to extend their lead about 30 seconds after the restart, with Hwang In-beom feeding Lee Kang-in just in front of the goalmouth. The pass was deflected before reaching Lee, whose redirection attempt went wide right of the net.

The momentum swung the other way at the hour mark, when Kuwait cut the deficit in half on Mohammad Daham's goal.

Substitute Youssef Majed's cross found Daham through multiple defenders on the right side of the box, and the midfielder, after a clean first touch, fired the ball to the top left corner to make it a 2-1 match.

Kuwait, buoyed by the goal in front of their partisan crowd, kept pressing for an equalizer, but South Korea scored the next goal to give themselves some breathing room in the 74th minute.

Hwang reprised his role as the playmaker, threading a pass through a sea of bodies to find Bae Jun-ho on the left side of the box. Bae, who had replaced Son in the 64th minute, calmly corralled the ball and faked out a defender before firing a right-footed shot for his second international goal.

South Korea dodged a bullet in the 85th minute when Redha Hani struck the left post with a header set up by Daham's free kick. (Yonhap)