South Korea Beat Germany And Portugal At World Cups. They Can Beat Mexico Too.
Son Heung-min's likely last World Cup. Hong Myung-bo managing. Group A includes hosts Mexico. South Korea have form for this exact upset.
South Korea beat Germany at the 2018 World Cup. They beat Portugal in the 2022 group stage. They reached the semi-finals as hosts in 2002. Drawing Mexico in Group A is dangerous — for Mexico. The host nation is on warning.
This is not a team that comes to tournaments to participate. South Korea come to tournaments to cause problems for nations who've already mentally booked their place in the knockout rounds. It's not a coincidence. It's a pattern. And the pattern has a new chapter at the 2026 World Cup.
Why South Korea Could Finish Second In Group A Behind Mexico
Group A is Mexico's group in every sense. They're the hosts, they get Estadio Azteca for the tournament opener against South Africa, the home crowd of 83,000 at altitude, and the psychological lift of an entire nation expecting a deep run. Mexico are the favourite. It's their home tournament. The group was always going to be structured around them.
But second place is available, and South Korea are the best-placed team to take it. South Africa have quality but inconsistency. Czechia are organised without the knockout threat of a genuinely top-twenty nation.
South Korea have Son Heung-min.
Son is the most dangerous wide forward in this group by some distance. He has been one of the top five forwards in European football at his peak. He knows how to decide big matches. He knows exactly what World Cup knockout pressure feels like. And he will be running out at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara on June 18 knowing that this is almost certainly his last time at this tournament.
That is a motivated player. A motivated captain. And a team shaped around giving him the best possible final chapter.
How Son Heung-min's Final World Cup Will Define South Korean Football
Son is 33 at the time of this tournament. In the strictest footballing sense, he is past peak. In the tournament sense — where individual moments and hunger and experience matter as much as physical capacity — he is exactly the right age to lea