South Korea's Son Heung-min is bearing the weight of expectation at the World Cup just as heavily as Mohamed Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane.
Even Lionel Messi, whose bid to add a World Cup to his career collection has become something of a communal objective for football, enjoys the support of a star-studded Argentinian side, from Angel Di Maria to Javier Mascherano to Sergio Aguero.
For Son and South Korea, the pressure is shared in the kind of unequal measure that perhaps only Salah would know with Egypt, before his own tournament was hampered by injury.
South Korea are teetering on the brink too, after a 1-0 defeat by Sweden left them needing at least a draw, and probably a win, against Mexico on Saturday to keep any hopes of progressing from Group F alive.
Son blamed himself for the opening loss.
"I'm still disappointed about my performance," he said.
"I feel very, very sorry for my team-mates because if we don't score, it's my fault, because I need to take the responsibility." Responsibility is one take, pressure another.
(LIVE SCORE: Korea Republic vs Mexico)21:16 IST: Mexicoeasing on theball, comfortable in possession as Miguel Layun delivers a free-kick into the box, which fails to find a target man and the referee blows the whistle for half-time.
Mexico lead 1-0 both on the scoreboard and in terms of possession.21:13 IST: Hirving Lozano with chance from the close range in the 42nd minute,as he gets past the Korea Republic defence with ease but he has skied the shot, well over the bar!21:11 IST: Fact: Carlos Vela became the first Mexican to score a penalty since Cuauhtemoc Blanco did at the World Cup on17 June, 2010.21:09 IST: Son breaks free through a long ball,his pace beats the Mexican defender but the ball took a little glove from the goalkeeper for a corner -- which is punched away from Ochua on the second cross in the box.40 minutes played!21:05 IST: Mexican goalkeeper Ochua stepsout from the box,to keep the ball rolling to his defence as the Mexican loses the ball and Son starts an attack from the right flank but fails to get the penetration right for the South Koreans,37 minutes up!21:00 IST: Son on a free-kick for Korea Republic,in the 31st minute and he has skied it well over the crossbar.20:58 IST: Mexicomaintaining ball control, making waited passes pushing the South Koreans further on the back foot.20:55 IST: GOAL! Carlos Velaputs Mexico in the front in the 26th minute from the spot.
The LA Galaxy forward calmly tucks in the penalty in the back of the net.20:53 IST: Son delivers,cleared away by the Mexican defence who quickly get on the counter, two on three on the ball.Penalty awarded to Mexico in the 23rd minute after Jang Hyunsoo handled the ball in the penalty area.20:51 IST: Sontakes multiple close range shots from inside the box, blocked by the defender in the21st minute.
Corner for Korea Republic!20:45 IST: 15 minutes into the game! Both sides still goal-lessbut Mexico clearly dominating the game with 70 percent possession.20:42 IST: Header fromHernandez! Theball goes off wide.20:39 IST: Free-kick for Mexico.
Cross from the right.
Cleared! comfortably by the Korean defense.20:38IST: Seven minutes into the game.
No real chance for both the teams till now.20:31 IST: KICK OFF!! South Korea get the match underway.20:26 IST: The two teams are out, national anthems are done and we are just minutes away from the start of the crucial Group F fixture.20:15 IST: We are just 15 minutes away from kick-off.20:10 IST:Korea Republic are going in with 4-4-2 formation while Mexico have gone in with a 4-3-3 combination.19:50 IST: Starting XI for both the teams announced!19:20 IST: Hello and welcome to the live updates of the match between Korea Republic and Mexico.Son is a star in his home country, to the extent he has to wear a disguise when he leaves the house and Korean journalists are employed in London, where they wait to speak to the forward after every Tottenham fixture in the Premier League.
But for all the attention he receives, the 25-year-old, who moved to Germany when he was 16 and made his name at Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen, is humble, driven and immensely popular with his team-mates.
He still lives in Barnet with his parents.
His father, Son Woong-jung, is a former striker himself, whose professional career was cut short by injury.
Tottenham's training ground, based nearby in Enfield, has housed Korean chefs, invited in by Son in the hope of ingratiating his team-mates to bulgogi (barbecued beef), japchae (stir-fried noodles) and Samgyetang (a type of chicken soup).