Right before the decisive match, Park, who won the nickname “tie-maker” after a couple of goals in warm up matches against England and France that led to draws, affirmed that he is ready to be called “victory maker,” and he surely proved himself. Overcoming an ankle injury from the aggressive match against the USA, Park again was not sparing himself, penetrating deep into the Portuguese defense, and falling back to help the back four.

Park’s swift breakthroughs made Portuguese midfielder Pinto foul him, leading to a red-card. The hardworking Park joined the ranks of international star players for his outstanding performance against once-favorite Portugal.

Starting playing soccer in the third grade, Park always considered hard training a catalyst to grow his love for the game. Until he moved to Japan to play for Kyoto Purple Sanga, he never violated his self-imposed 10:00pm curfew.

Selected for the national team in April, 2000, for the Asian Cup preliminaries, Park has been Guus Hiddink’s favorite after he showed his potential as a defensive midfielder in the game against Paraguay in January, 2001, during the Carlsberg Cup.

Contributing two assists in the Confederations Cup tournament, Park rose as the future of Team Korea along with fellow youngsters, Seol Ki-hyun, Song Chong-kuk and Lee Chun-su. Now indispensable to the team, Park said the confidence he gained from training was the driving force for his closing goal.

(An Yong-hyeon, justice@chosun.com )