MONTERREY, Mexico — It was the boldest of gambles with progress to the World Cup round of 32 on the line — and one that ultimately backfired spectacularly.
South Korea coach Hong Myung-Bo had jaws dropping when he chose to leave out captain Son Heung-Min from his first XI for Wednesday’s Group A decider against South Africa — the first time since Son started his journey with the national team that he wasn’t in the starting lineup.
The result? A shocking-but-deserved 1-0 victory for South Africa which sent them from the bottom of the group to a second-place finish — sealing their progress to the knockout round of the first time ever.
Meanwhile, the South Koreans have to wait for the conclusion of the group stage on Saturday to find out if they will also advance as one of the best-performing third-placed teams.
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The South Korean press were in no mood to hold back when a crestfallen Hong turned up for his postmatch news conference. “An unacceptable result” and “dismal” were both hurled his way in the first two questions. The tinkering of his starting XI was labelled “a failure.”
And Hong — with perhaps no other option — had to admit, with the benefit of hindsight, he may not have made the big call if he had his time again.
“In terms of the process and preparing for this game, and how we would play on the field, that is something I put much thought into,” said the ex-South Korea captain, who led them to their famous semifinal finish in 2002 during his playing days. “Of course, if we knew what the result was going to be, I probably would have made different choices.
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“But I had a strategy in mind. Whenever such a bad result happens, everyone has their own opinion. The result is really the responsibility of the head coach. Ultimately, it comes down to my hands.
“I guess I made the wrong decisions and that was the reason we had a bad result. Nothing more, nothing less.”
When questioned further on the logic behind dropping Son, Hong revealed that he was hoping to introduce his talisman at a stage when the opponents would be tiring — which makes it slightly odd that he chose the start of the second half when South Africa had just come out from a break.
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“We thought that Son would be better placed [to make an impact] when the opponents were losing their energy, not when they had a lot of energy,” Hong added. “And when there were more spaces to exploit between the opponents’ defensive line, that’s when we wanted Son to be at his strongest — when the opponents were a bit weaker.”
Hong, who labelled Wednesday’s performance their “worst game” of the tournament, was also at the helm when South Korea failed to win a single game in 2014 — which remains their worst performance at the World Cup since 1998.
