South Korea's national football team was eliminated in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup in North and Central America, leaving behind a series of unwanted records.
The team, led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, finished third in its group with one win and two losses (three points) against the Czech Republic, Mexico and South Africa. It also failed to secure a wild-card spot, awarded to the top eight of the third-place teams, falling short based on results from other groups.
In its opening match against the Czech Republic on June 12, Korea conceded early in the second half but won 2-1 on an equalizer by Hwang In-beom and a go-ahead goal by Oh Hyun-gyu. It was Korea's first-ever World Cup victory at a tournament held in the Americas. But the momentum did not last long.
In the second match against host Mexico on June 19, Korea conceded on a mishandled aerial ball by its goalkeeper and defender early in the second half, losing 0-1. In the final group-stage match against South Africa on June 25, Korea again gave up a second-half opener and fell 0-1. The defeat came in a situation where even a draw would have guaranteed passage to the round of 32.
At this tournament, Korean football left behind several unwanted records. First, Hong became the world's first coach of the same national team to be eliminated in the World Cup group stage twice. He also experienced a last-place group exit with one draw and two losses at the 2014 tournament in Brazil.
The ranking record was also the worst in history. Placing 34th out of 48 nations marked the lowest ranking in Korea's 72-year World Cup history since its first appearance at the 1954 tournament in Switzerland, surpassing the previous low of 30th at the 1998 tournament in France. Some media described it as the "lowest ranking in 44 years."
Records showing a scoring slump also emerged. Managing only two goals in three group-stage matches was the first such result in 28 years since 1998, and failing to score in two of those matches (against Mexico and South Africa) was the first since the 1990 tournament in Italy, 36 years ago. On the other hand, conceding only three goals matched the fewest goals allowed in the group stage, tied with the 2002 and 2018 tournaments, which was cited as a small consolation.
Foreign media were also unkind in their assessment. Japanese sports outlet Tereto Sports, in a June 28 article suggesting the gap between Korean and Japanese football had widened, noted that Korea failed to advance even though the expanded field of participating nations had lowered the threshold for passage.
The outlet mentioned that this was the result despite Korea having world-class players such as Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in and Kim Min-jae, and assessed that a cold comparison of recent World Cup results and squad depth showed the gap between the two nations widening clearly. The point contrasted with Japan advancing to the round of 32 even from a group featuring strong teams such as the Netherlands and Sweden.
Reactions from other Japanese media were similar. Daily Sports assessed that the group draw had instead turned into a nightmare, while Sports Hochi expressed surprise that Korea failed to get past a situation in which even a draw in its last match would have been enough to advance. Soccer Digest pointed out that results in other groups had also turned against Korea.
