Korea coach shoulders blame for World Cup loss to South Africa

Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo reacts to a play during his team's Group A match against South Africa at the FIFA World Cup at Estadio Monterrey in Guadalupe, Mexico, June 24. Yonhap

GUADALUPE, Mexico — Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo blamed himself and nobody else in the aftermath of a 1-0 loss to South Africa on Wednesday to close out the group stage at the FIFA World Cup.

A win or a draw at Estadio Monterrey in Guadalupe, northeastern Mexico, would have sent the Taegeuk Warriors into the round of 32 as the runner-up in their group. Instead, Korea finished third in Group A with three points from a win and two losses, as they were unable to respond to Thapelo Maseko's goal in the 63rd minute. Korea must now wait for the rest of the groups to finish play to see where they end up in the rankings of third-place teams.

In addition to the top two teams from each of 12 groups, the eight best third-place teams will progress to the knockout round. With Groups A, B and C having finished their group stage, Korea are fourth among No. 3 teams, though four nations have already bagged three points with one match remaining.

"On a stage as big as this, the head coach is responsible for all the results," Hong said at his postmatch press conference. "Ultimately, I made wrong decisions that led to this outcome. There's nothing more, nothing less to it."

Korea controlled their own destiny entering this match but instead played without much urgency. It prompted a reporter to ask Hong if players had food poisoning or were dealing with some other issues that prevented them from playing better.

"Although we played poorly, we didn't have problems of such nature," Hong said. "And even if we had some issues, I wouldn't want to use them as excuses anyway. But this was indeed our worst match in the group stage."

Hong evaded a follow-up question on why he felt the team didn't play well.

"This is a results-based business. If we know the outcome ahead of time, then we would prepare accordingly, but that's not possible," Hong said. "You can give various reasons for a result like this, but ultimately, everything is on me as head coach."

Hong also defended his choice to bench captain Son Heung-min at the start of the match. The veteran talisman had started his 12 previous World Cup matches, dating to his first tournament in 2014 when Hong was in his first tour of duty as the national team boss.

Son didn't score in each of the first two matches at this year's tournament and Hong subbed him out in the second half in both games.

"I felt it would be better for us to put him into the match in the second half, when he would have more space, rather than from the beginning when the opposing players would have more energy," Hong said.

Both of Korea's first two matches were played in cooler and drier conditions in Zapopan, western Mexico. The players had to deal with more sweltering conditions in Guadalupe, but Hong said he didn't think the weather played much of a factor in the loss.

"Our players knew exactly how they had to play in these conditions," Hong said. "But after conceding the goal, they started rushing their plays. We made some mistakes in the middle and that caused our players to lose some confidence. We should have done a better job against their counterattacks."