An unusual match in terms of flow as Korea controlled the first half, but didn’t really generate much of anything. A Kim Seunggyu blunder early in the second half gave Mexico the only goal of the game. Korea pressed for an equalizer and came close to Cho Guesung, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Jinseok and Tim to put up their readings later, with a brief match recap from Jinseok to follow.
Ratings
Starters
Kim Seunggyu (GK)
Jae: What to say? A massive blunder cost the match as he dropped the ball trying to claim it over his own defender (Lee Gihyuk I think it was). That being said he also made three very good saves. 5.5
Jinseok: yeah I think everyone is going to say the same, great passing game and always plus several excellent saves with one moment of extremely bad luck due to miscommunication with Lee Gi Hyeok. I’ll stick to the convention of 6 being the neutral rating so in this case I’ll also go 5.5
Lee Hanbeom (DF)
Jae: Much busier in the second half than in the first. Was overall solid, but Mexico didn’t really threaten that often. 6.5
Jinseok: I think LHB was excellent today actually, deserves props for essentially erasing Julian Quiñones from the game. He also made some very good attacking runs as well down the R flank. 7.5
Kim Minjae (DF)
Jae: Solid in the center and made a couple nice runs from deep. Was probably a little fortunate the ref really kept the whistle in his pocket. 7.0
Jinseok: like the prior game we saw flashes of prime Napoli KMJ with those perfectly timed tackles and runs from deep as Jae mentioned. 7.5
Lee Gihyuk (DF)
Jae: Busier in the first half, but then a quieter second half. Not a huge amount of note that I can remember. 6.5
Jinseok: again I am amazed that this guy can slot into the team after having made his debut just last month. K League for the win! Good long balls too. But yeah didn’t have a huge impact on the match and if KSG gets a 5.5 I’ll say the same here 5.5
Kim Moonhwan (RWB)
Jae: Far too conservative as he didn’t offer much going forward and seemed to always pass back to the defenders. 5.5
Jinseok: I’m really not sure what HMB’s reasoning was for starting KMH on the right and SYW on the left. I’m going to be doing a lot of media digging to see why. I don’t remember him doing much of note. 5
Hwang Inbeom (CM)
Jae: Was far from his influential best and got run over in midfield. 6.0
Jinseok: agrees with Jae, neutral 6
Paik Seungho (CM)
Jae: Similar to Hwang Inbeom, really just did not have any opportunity to show his better qualities. 6.0
Jinseok: agrees with Jae, neutral 6
Seol Youngwoo (LWB)
Jae: Had a couple nice runs early on, but faded badly as the game went on. 6.0
Jinseok: Soooo many offsides runs but hey at least he tried. I feel like we’re still trying the “square pegs into round holes” approach with our fullbacks. If Kim Moon Hwan gets a 5 then I think what’s fair here is 5.5
Lee Kangin (RW)
Jae: Mixed for me. As always, great on the ball, but lacked any real influence on the game. Had to come very deep to get involved which helped with possession, but really de-fanged the attack. 7.0
Jinseok: Not as impactful as before sadly, but still effective with great passing as always. 7
Lee Jaesung (LW)
Jae: I’m a big fan, but there are some games where it seems obvious he’s not the guy for it. This was one of them. Some nice runs, but largely lost. 6.0
Son Heungmin (CF)
Jae: Another quiet night, but I thought Son was better today than against Czechia. Was surprised he got the hook so early. 6.5
Substitutes
Oh Hyungyu – Missed one of the best chances (which was called back for offside – which looked wrong on replay) to draw level. Was quiet after that. 6.0
Hwang Heechan – Quiet after he came on with little real impact. 5.5
Eom Jisung – Put in a great cross that Cho Guesung almost put away for the equalizer. Was quite lively on the left. 6.5
Yang Hyunjun – Was a little less active than Eom on the left, but still had a positive impact in his running and directness. 6.0
Cho Guesung – Almost scored the equalizer and had another nice header well blocked. 6.5
Coach
Jae: – I’m still perplexed by the 3-4-3. It doesn’t really suit anyone on paper that he’s starting. My only thought is that it’s just a way to (in theory) shore up the defense by having three centerbacks there. Lee Jaesung and Lee Kangin aren’t really well suited to their wide roles, Seol Youngwoo and Kim Moonhwan (especially) are not good enough to be wingbacks at this level. Paik Seungho and Hwang Inbeom are quality but not able to exert influence against modern three-man midfields. Poor starting choices (team was obviously looking for a draw) and not a whole lot of ideas other than throw on attackers. 5.0
Jinseok: piggybacking off of what Jae said, this 3 back thing was clearly a problem in friendlies, but worked really well against Czechia. Today it was actually pretty good too, and we clearly looked a lot better than we did in the friendlies leading up to the World Cup. We planned well, both teams went mega conservative, we shut down their counterattacks well, and it’s very unfortunate that we had to lose a game that was clearly going 0-0. As if there was a gentleman’s agreement for a draw. My personal criticism on HMB’s end is that the fullbacks didn’t quite play their role, but not being able to score despite good defending and good control of the game is a quintessential Korean issue. He also appropriately put on Cho Gue Sung and went for plan B which was actually quite effective. I don’t think today’s loss is on him. Neutral 6
This game was hard to watch as I don’t think Mexico was that much better than Korea. I do agree that our attack was very lackluster.
To be honest, I think that yellow card given to Kangin really changed the tempo of the game.
This should have been a tie game but now we must win/tie South Africa.
We must not overlook South Africa.
Agreed, that would be the worst thing to do, overlooking that is. Mexico doesn’t have great width and not an enterprising midfield, they are quite a flawed team. However one thing they have massively improved on is their backline and defence, they held us at bay comfortably for the overwhelming portion of the game. 2 shot attempts on goal the whole game is not very good end product and I don’t believe Korea is anywhere good enough to have consistent, enterprising performances game in, game out. Can look good against Czechia who doesn’t want to play real football, but did very little against an organized and structured defence. It would be ludircous at this point if we lost to South Africa, who IMO have looked pretty bad at this world cup. Goalie made some good saves, but that was a clown show unprofessional error on the winning goal. Real amateur hour stuff.
We should somewhat comfortably beat South Africa but given our historically iffy form when playing overseas and against African opposition, it’s not a given. In attack there isn’t enough vertical movement/passing. There’s too much sideways/possession passing in the back, but that’s also because midfield/forwards are all just kind of standing there waiting. It doesn’t feel like there’s those planned moves where the ball moves to a side and certain player and the attackers know to make a run and the ball will go their way.
From a team quality level, I thought that we were very much on par with Mexico. It easily could have ended 1-1 or 2-2 (or 0-0) and that would have been fair. The card to Kangin felt a little harsh given it was his first challenge and early on, but anything on that top foot/ankle area has the potential to draw a card.
By far that was the worst match among all 2026 WC tournament! We had little to no ambilition to win, and that Mexican side was poor. I don’t quite understand utilizing #22 Seol as a wingback. It appears even he doesn’t believe in himself to take on such role. He’s one of those players who look “busy” but never quite delivers consistent quality. I can’t remember him beating his man to cause defensive chaos or put in one good cross. Constantly dribble and then pass back, that’s just not gonna cut it at this high level. C’mon HMB, let’s show some courage and play with more inspiration, win, lose, or draw!
SYW is a defensive minded fullback who has repeatedly stated in the media he is not an attacker, he is more comfortable defending
Yes, it’s truly bewildering. I have no inherent objection to using the wingback system, provided there are appropriate players to do so. Many GREAT managers have used the system for success over the years, but they had the right players to implement it. If your wingback can’t beat his man nor make good crosses, what is the point of giving up a player in the middle? No wonder we didn’t get single corner kick till late 2nd half.
Does anybody have our coach ear/phone number to tell him that he used the first 2 substitutions exactly as our Czech game? Czech team is not the same as the Mexico team.
Yes, HMB did use Cho but it was too late by then in my opinion.
Why not use both Cho and Sonny as a 2 pronged attack instead of just making our offense very predictable.
I do think there is good logic to use Cho Gue Sung against Mexico considering they’re not too strong in the air, but it seems we went for the “attack behind the defense” route instead. I think the change was made appropriately but yes a bit late. We should’ve went for CGS right after conceding considering Mexico had dropped deeper and defended very early in the game