With the 2022 FIFA World Cup kick-off behind us, it’s time to explore the last team in Group H – South Korea.
Every day until November 20th, we’ll explore a different team represented in this year’s tournament, from Group A to Group H, including predictions about where they’ll end up.
We’ve looked at all the other 31 teams participating over the last 32 days, from Qatar to Uruguay. Now we’ll explore a team we expect to shock Portugal – Son Heung-min’s South Korean Warriors.
South Korea
Group H
Nickname: Warriors, Tigers of Asia
Colors: Red, white, blue
Location:
Coach: Paulo Bento (Portugal)
Top Players:
South Korea’s biggest star is Son Heung-min, the team captain and a Hotspur legend. Sonaldo is undoubtedly Korea’s strongest player, but he will have some big-league help from Napoli’s Kim Min-jae, Mallorca’s Lee Kang-in, and SC Freiburg’s Jeong Woo-yeong.
Team History:
Qatar will be the 10th World Cup appearance for South Korea, who finished in fourth place in 2002 after upsetting Spain in the quarters and getting knocked out by Germany in the semis. In 2018, Korea bowed out in the group stages with losses to Mexico and Sweden but a win over Germany.
South Korea is 11-2-3 in 2022, with wins over WC-qualifying squads Iran and Cameroon. South Korea also lost to Japan and Brazil by a combined score of 8-1, and you can probably guess where most of those points came from.
Tournament Prediction: Round of 16 loss to Brazil.
South Korea opens against Uruguay on November 24, a match Uruguay is likely to win. So long as Son stays healthy, South Korea should squeak out a win over Ghana next. We think South Korea’s team dynamics will fuel an upset over Ronaldo’s divided Portugal in their final group match, which should send The Tigers of Asia to the knock-out stages.
Unfortunately for Korea, they’ll face the winner of Group G in the round of 16, who is more than likely going to be Brazil. Brazil will take this one 3-1.
Featured Image: Generated Image: DALL-E 2/DM