South Korea's Son gamble backfires in shock South
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- Hong Myung-Bo dropped captain Son Heung-Min from his starting XI for South Korea's Group A decider against South Africa — the first time Son wasn't in the lineup since beginning his national team career.
- South Africa won 1-0, climbing from the bottom of Group A to second place and sealing their first-ever knockout-round qualification at a World Cup.
- South Korea must now wait until the conclusion of the group stage on Saturday to learn whether they advance as one of the best third-placed teams.
- Hong admitted at his postmatch news conference that he 'made the wrong decisions,' saying he would have chosen differently had he known the outcome and calling it 'the worst game' of South Korea's tournament.
- Hong said his tactical logic was to bring Son on 'when the opponents were losing their energy' — and subbed him in at the start of the second half, right after the break.
- South Korea's press labeled the result 'unacceptable' and 'dismal' in the first two questions hurled at Hong during his postmatch appearance.
- Hong was also the coach in 2014, when South Korea failed to win a single World Cup match — their worst showing since 1998.
Why it matters: South Korea's progression now depends on results elsewhere in the group stage on Saturday, while South Africa — making the knockout round for the first time in their history — are the unambiguous winners of a match that put Hong's in-game decision-making under immediate, public fire from his own press corps. Hong's full-throated admission of fault echoes the 2014 group-stage exit, the only previous time he was in charge at a World Cup.
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