Zapopan: South Korea's 1-0 loss to Mexico in their Group A showdown at the FIFA World Cup on Thursday came on a combination of their lack of precision and a stroke of bad luck. The Taegeuk Warriors didn't quite have the clinical touch to finish off their opportunities in the frustrating loss at Estadio Guadalajara in Zapopan, western Mexico, while they gifted a goal to the home side in a preventable miscue.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the teams didn't score in a careful first half, though South Korea made their intent clear. They wanted to hold on to the ball and bide their time trying to find space behind the defense, not to be deterred by groans and whistles from a restless, partisan Mexican crowd in the stands. Some active off-the-ball movements gave South Korea some dangerous looks but their timing was just a tiny bit off-leading to four offside violations in the first half alone.
One such call came on captain Son Heung-min's opportunity in the 16th minute, when he went one-on-one with goalkeeper Raul Rangel and floated a shot into what was momentarily an empty net. Defender Edson Alvarez somehow kept it out with an acrobatic overhead clearance. South Korea controlled the middle of the field, and Mexico failed to mount much of a push in the first half, other than Julian Quinones' header grabbed by diving goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu in the 20th minute.
That the match's lone goal came off a silly miscue in their own box added to South Korea's frustration. About five minutes into the second half, Kim Seung-gyu came off his line and leapt to claim a harmless header from Raul Jimenez. But on his way down, Kim crashed into the back of his own defender Lee Gi-hyuk, who failed to get out of the way. The ball spilled loose for Luis Romo, who poked it into the gaping net for the 1-0 lead. Better communication between the goalkeeper and the center back would have prevented the goal that ended up being the difference in the match.
South Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo inserted attacking players into the match in desperate search for some offense. And those substitutes nearly got it done in the late moments of the second half. First, Yang Hyun-jun crossed for the oncoming Oh Hyeon-gyu in the 76th minute, in a similar move that had the latter score the go-ahead goal against Czechia last week. This time, Oh couldn't quite get to the pass inside the six-yard box, though Yang was eventually ruled offside anyway.
South Korea took two cracks at the equalizer in the 87th minute, but goalkeeper Raul Rangel made miraculous stops on Cho Gue-sung's initial header and then on Yang's follow-up attempt. In response to South Korea's subs, Mexico sent in defenders trying to lock things down on their own end. The teams were level with eight shot attempts each, with South Korea putting two on target and Mexico sending four attempts on goal.
Now with six points, Mexico won Group A with one match to spare and became the first team to qualify for the knockouts. South Korea are in second place with three points and will join Mexico in the round of 32 with a win or a draw against South Africa in the Group A finale next Wednesday. Midfielder Hwang In-beom said South Korea are in a much better spot after two matches than four years ago in Qatar, where South Korea had a draw and a loss out of the gate and needed a win and some help from others in their final group stage match against Portugal.
"We don't need to do any number crunching. We just have to win or have a draw in the next match," Hwang said. "We feel pretty comfortable with the situation. South African players are physical and fast. We can't afford to let our guard down for a moment but if we play our game, we should be able to beat them." Hwang said he was pleased with the way his side controlled the run of play for the most part, though the outcome would have been different with better finish in the box.
"Once we seized control, our opponents got pretty frustrated and got mad at each other," Hwang said. "That's a positive takeaway for us, but we weren't able to create as many scoring chances as we'd have liked. We have to go back to the drawing board and figure out why we couldn't do it." Center back Kim Min-jae also tried to look on the brighter side, saying South Korea's performance had vastly improved-the second-half miscue notwithstanding.
"Anyone can make a mistake over the course of a match," Kim said. "I don't think we need to talk about that play amongst ourselves. We have to shrug it off and get ready for the next match." Lee Kang-in, once again the main orchestrator of attack, said he couldn't wait for the next match to come around. "The match is already in the past and we can't turn back the clock," the Paris Saint-Germain player said. "We have to keep playing better moving forward, so that we can keep advancing in the tournament."