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Son Heung-min, the striker on Korea’s national football team, attempts a header while wearing a mask due to an injury, during the team’s match against Ghana on Nov. 28 (Korea time) in Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar. (Yonhap)

Another chronic problem with Korean football has emerged. And it isn’t the team’s inability to finish or its back pass issue.

It’s the personal attacks on its players, which grow worse with every World Cup and have now crossed a line.

After the Ghana match, the Instagram account of Korean team captain Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur) was flooded with malicious comments.

Nowhere to be found was the hero who was the first Asian to become the English Premier League’s top goal scorer, bringing Koreans so much joy.

All that remained was a goat for people to take their anger out on for the loss against Ghana.

You had to look hard to find any respect for a man who was taking part in the World Cup despite previously suffering an orbital fracture, enduring risk of further injury because of his irreplaceable talent.

Hwang In-beom, a midfielder for Korea, plays through a head injury during the team’s match with Ghana on Nov. 28 (Korea time) in Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar. (Yonhap)

Also coming under fierce online attack was Kwon Chang-hoon (Gimcheon), who took the pitch against Ghana, and even his girlfriend.

Kim Jin-su (Jeonbuk), who spent the match spiritedly running around the pitch on defense and on the attack, was subject to condemnation and mockery, as was his family.

Other players ensured similar torrents of online abuse.

Many fans later covered these attacks in a mountain of praise and well-wishing comments, but we still got to see that excessive attacks on athletes continue.

The tournament hasn’t yet ended, but the players have so far done their best to perform as they’ve prepared for the last four years.

They fought a favored Uruguay squad to a draw, and they showed enough spirit to bring themselves back from 0-2 against Ghana, eventually tying it up.

Compared to the online attacks these athletes endure, the behavior of the Ghana coach who tried to take a selfie with a crying Son after the loss was nothing in terms of insult and mockery.

The UK daily the Telegraph wrote about the Ghana match, “If you were coming up with the perfect ingredients for a dramatic World Cup game they would include terrific goals, a stirring comeback, momentum switching constantly, last-ditch defending, great goalkeeping, a forward swearing into the camera lens as he celebrated scoring and a superstar player on his knees in tears at the final whistle... Well, this match had it all. What a confrontation it was.”

It added, “Either side might yet make the last-16. Though if this is the entertainment they are capable of delivering, you feel they both deserve it.”

The Korean players are receiving panegyrics from the outside world, while in Korea, they are basically being spat upon.

Kim Min-jae of Korea’s national football team appears to be in pain on the field during the team’s match against Ghana on Nov. 28 (Korea time) in Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar. (Yonhap)

Looking at the attacks on the players, one is reminded of last Thursday’s match between Canada and Belgium.

Canada lost 0-1, and team ace Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) blew a penalty kick.

However, Canada’s head coach John Herdman said his team was on the World Cup stage, and that fans were proud of this.

Canadians responded by lauding the players. Canada’s national broadcaster CBC wrote, “Canada lost its World Cup opener — but it won respect.”

Sadly, we lost something even more important than victory.

Shin Tae-yong, who skippered the Korean team during the 2018 World Cup in Russia, touched on the subject in an interview with the Monthly JoongAng magazine that year.

“If Koreans ordinarily liked football and the stands of pro league matches were full of fans, I’d be thrilled if they cursed the coach of the national team and took him to task,” he said.

“But it’s ironic that 30 million people who never show up at football matches all become coaches when it’s World Cup time to give you the thumbs up or thumbs down.”

Have things changed all that much over the last four years?

Korean football has developed a bit thanks to hard work mixed with blood, sweat and tears. The only guys who keep back-passing and scoring own goals are the ones who keep jabbing at the spirit of the athletes while hiding behind their anonymity.

By Lee Jun-hee, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]