For the match against South Africa, managing cards matters as much as winning. Lee Ki-hyuk, Lee Kang-in and Baek Seung-ho, who each received yellow cards in the first and second matches, will be unable to play in the round of 32 if they pick up additional cautions in the third match. The referee for this game in particular has a strict tendency, so smart play is required.
According to the Korea Football Association on Tuesday, a total of three players on the current South Korean national team have received yellow cards. All of them are core assets for the team, so they are likely to take the field in the third match as well.
Lee Kang-in is, quite literally, an irreplaceable player. In the match against the Czech Republic, he created three scoring chances with an "artificial intelligence (AI)-level" performance featuring a 100% pass completion rate, one of which led to Hwang In-beom's equalizing goal. In the match against Mexico, Lee Kang-in also led the attack with an 88% pass completion rate and three created scoring chances. If key player Lee Kang-in is absent, even if the team advances to the round of 32, its chances of reaching the round of 16 would inevitably drop sharply.
Lee Ki-hyuk and Baek Seung-ho are also core assets the team can ill afford to lose. Lee Ki-hyuk is the starting left center-back who played full time in both group-stage matches, while Baek Seung-ho is Hwang In-beom's partner in midfield. Both started in both matches.
As it happens, Facundo Tello of Argentina, the referee for the South Africa match, was the official for the group-stage third match against Portugal at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. That game was a 2-1 comeback win that secured South Korea's first away World Cup round-of-16 berth in 12 years, but South Korea were the only side to receive two cautions in the match. Those went to Lee Kang-in and Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton).
Referee Tello also drew attention for sending off as many as 10 players in the final of the Argentine Cup, held just before the Qatar World Cup. At this World Cup as well, he officiated the Canada-Bosnia and Herzegovina match on the 13th, giving three cautions to Bosnia and two to Canada.
From the round of 32, accumulated cautions are reset to "0." Yellow cards are wiped out twice in total: after the final group-stage match and after the quarterfinals.
