MONTERREY, Mexico: South Korea\u2019s World Cup hopes hang by a thread after a 1-0 loss to South Africa on Wednesday (Jun 24).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Taegeuk Warriors can still reach the last 32 as one of the best third-placed teams, but need results elsewhere to go their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thapelo Maseko fired into the bottom corner in the 63rd minute to put South Africa through to the knockout stage of a World Cup for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They finished second in Group A on four points behind\u00a0winners Mexico\u00a0and will face co-hosts Canada in Los Angeles on Jun 28. South Korea, who started with talisman Son Heung-min on the bench, finished on three points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Korea coach Hong Myung-bo said he had deliberately left captain Son out of the starting 11 in the hope the forward could exploit tiring South African legs after the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he conceded his side never found their rhythm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe thought that when the opponents had a lot of energy it would be better to use Son later in the game, when they started losing energy and there was more space,\u201d Hong said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe wanted to use him when they were weaker.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa had failed to advance from the group stage in their first three World Cup appearances in 1998, 2002 and 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa coach Hugo Broos praised his side’s discipline after securing a historic victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was a fantastic experience. It was so tough today, but it was a good game. I think tactically we were very good and it was difficult for South Korea to find space,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We scored, then there were 20 minutes of heart-stopping moments. It’s historical, and I’m very happy for the guys. I’ve been working with them for five years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Korea, who enjoyed most of the possession but lacked a cutting edge and inspiration, made the brighter start when Kim Min-jae’s header was cleared off the line by Aubrey Modiba after two minutes, before Lee Kang-in fired over from inside the penalty area shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa gradually grew into the contest and nearly struck in the 19th minute when Maseko raced onto a through ball, only for Lee Gi-hyuk to produce a superb last-ditch tackle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu then made an excellent double save, first denying Thalente Mbatha before smothering Evidence Makgopa’s follow-up effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After soaking up the early pressure against a South Korea side that struggled to create clear openings, even with captain Son coming on at half-time, South Africa deservedly found the breakthrough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moremi slipped a precise pass into Maseko, who shifted the ball onto his left foot before drilling a low finish into the bottom right-hand corner to send his side into the last 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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MONTERREY, Mexico: South Korea\u2019s World Cup hopes hang by a thread after a 1-0 loss to South Africa on Wednesday (Jun 24). The Taegeuk Warriors can still reach the last 32 as one of the best third-placed teams, but need results elsewhere to go their way. Thapelo Maseko fired into the bottom corner in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418300,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418299\/revisions\/418300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}