'No Hong' signs greet embattled former coach in US

A business owner posts a sign barring former Korea national football team coach Hong Myung-bo from entering a business establishment in Los Angeles. Captured from Instagram

SEATTLE — Koreans in Los Angeles had hoped to watch Korea play there during the World Cup knockout stage. Instead, they are reacting to the arrival of former coach Hong Myung-bo, whose handling of the national team's World Cup campaign has made him one of the country's most criticized sports figures.

Hong arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday, just days after stepping down following Korea's disappointing World Cup exit. His departure came as lawmakers prepared to question football officials over the Korea Football Association's (KFA) handling of the national team amid growing calls for accountability over its performance.

The frustration was evident not only in online posts but also on storefronts across Los Angeles' Korean community.

Photos shared on Threads and Instagram showed restaurants, cafes and grocery stores posting signs barring Hong from entering. One proposal gained traction on the Korean American online forum MissyUSA, where a user suggested local business owners join in.

"In Korea, he probably thinks he can walk away and people will eventually forget," the user wrote. "There are plenty of Korean-owned businesses here. Let's all put up 'Hong Myung-bo, Get Out' signs."

"The Korean population is huge here so Hong should know that he'll definitely feel the backlash," said another forum user.

Online communities popular among Korean Americans were flooded with criticism, much of it centered on the belief that Hong's tactics cost Korea a chance to play in Los Angeles during the knockout stage.

"Koreans in L.A. are probably the angriest," one commenter wrote. "If Korea had finished second in its group, the Round of 32 match would have been in Los Angeles. But even after conceding a goal, they kept passing backward and eliminated any chance of finishing second."

A California resident described the disappointment in personal terms. "I bought tickets for the Round of 32 and Round of 16 matches and ended up canceling my trip to Los Angeles," the commenter wrote.

Many commenters said Hong should return to Korea and answer questions about the team's performance rather than leaving for the United States so soon after resigning. Others directed their frustration at the KFA, arguing that the controversy exposed deeper structural problems within Korean football.

"Rather than getting overly emotional, we should hold him accountable and reform the football association so this never happens again, creating a system based solely on merit," one commenter wrote.

Not everyone supported the intensity of the backlash.

"Hong may have been an incompetent coach, but this pile-on has gone too far," one commenter wrote. "Shouldn't the association and its executives who appointed him be held accountable instead?"

The comments and storefront signs showed that the backlash over Korea's World Cup campaign has extended beyond Korea, surfacing among Korean communities in Los Angeles following Hong's arrival in the U.S.