It was a performance so poor that watching all 90 minutes was difficult. A draw alone would have been enough to advance to the round of 32 as group runner-up, but South Korea suffered a shocking defeat after one of its worst-ever displays. South Africa, ranked 61st internationally, was considered the weakest team in Group A and a notch below South Korea (ranked 24th), but the reality proved otherwise. With the loss to South Africa, South Korea failed to secure passage to the knockout stage on its own. Even if luck carries the team into the round of 32, the performance shown against South Africa makes the round of 16 hard to expect.
South Korea's national football team lost 0-1 to South Africa in the final Group A match of the group stage, held at Monterrey Stadium in Guadalupe, Mexico, on Wednesday (Korea time).
The Hong Myung-bo-led squad avoided confirmed elimination, finishing third in the group (3 points, goal difference -1) behind South Africa (4 points, goal difference -1), thanks to Mexico's (9 points, goal difference 6) 3-0 victory over the Czech Republic (1 point, goal difference -4) in the final group match. To advance to the round of 32, the team must wait for results from other groups.
In this match, South Korea suffered a humiliating defeat after a display of "three-less football": the coach's lack of tactics, the players' missing fighting spirit, and the worst scoring record in World Cup history.
Coach Hong left Son Heung-min (LAFC) out of the starting lineup. The plan was to bring him on in the second half, when gaps would open in the South African defense. But the tactic became a fatal misstep that paralyzed the attack. Oh Hyeon-gyu (Beşiktaş), who started, was tightly marked by the South African defense throughout the first half and failed to create any meaningful chances. South Korea recorded no shots on target in the first half, and Oh Hyeon-gyu was replaced by Son Heung-min at the start of the second half. Foreign media also found Hong's tactics hard to understand. U.S. sports outlet ESPN said, "South Korea made the surprising decision to bench superstar Son Heung-min," calling it "a fatal choice."
Beyond the lineup decisions, there was also a lack of tactical adjustment to the flow of the match. After conceding in the 63rd minute, the team failed to make effective changes to its formation. To earn even a point through a draw, the team needed to take risks and increase its attacking intensity, but for the remaining time there was no major change in the team's offensive approach. The only move was bringing on Cho Gue-sung in the 74th minute to add an attacker. The team still relied on flank play and simple wide crosses, which were repeatedly blocked by the South African defense.
Opposing coach Hugo Broos of South Africa also pointed out Hong's lack of tactics. "South Korea was as expected. We knew (before the match) that South Korea would run a lot and try to find space behind the defense," Broos said. "Tactically, we were better than South Korea today." After the match, Hong said, "Because (I, as coach) made wrong judgments and decisions, the result turned out poorly," adding, "On a big stage like this, the result is entirely the coach's responsibility."
The "fighting spirit" that has been a symbol of Korean football was also nowhere to be seen. Nine of South Korea's 11 starters play in Europe and were far superior to the South African players in individual ability, but the will to win was weak. In fact, even when losing the ball during build-up, players were repeatedly seen pushing responsibility onto teammates rather than running to recover it, and even while trailing South Africa, an aggressive approach was hard to find. The Mexican fans who packed the stadium were so disappointed by the players' lack of fighting spirit that they poured out sighs and jeers.
JTBC commentator Park Ji-sung also criticized the players' lack of fighting spirit. "It was a situation where they needed to be aggressive, but they kept the same number of defenders and played on," he said. "They only hoped someone up front would solve it; there was no will as a team to create a goal."
Despite the strongest lineup ever, weak scoring also held South Korea back. In this tournament's group stage, South Korea scored two goals against the Czech Republic and then went scoreless for two consecutive matches. It is the first time in 28 years, since the 1998 France tournament, that South Korea has finished the group stage with two goals or fewer. Even at the 2014 Brazil tournament, where the team was eliminated in the group stage with one draw and two losses, it scored three goals.
