Preview: South Korea vs Mexico
Mexico can move to within touching distance of the last-16 with victory against South Korea in Group F on Saturday.
South Korean fans cheering for their team in Seoul during the 2014 World Cup. Korean Culture and Information Service/Wikimedia Commons
El Tricolor caused a huge stir in their opening match after beating defending champions Germany 1-0 and the Mexican’s will be aiming to win back-to-back World Cup matches for the first time since 2002.
The history books make for good reading for Mexico going into Saturday’s contest as they have won all three of their World Cup games against Asian opposition, scoring seven and conceding just two from those encounters.
PSV winger Hirving Lozano was particularly impressive in the opening match, taking his goal very well, and he will be crucial to his team’s chances of picking up all three points.
A win for Mexico, coupled with a defeat for Germany against Sweden in the later kickoff, would guarantee Juan Carlos Osorio’s men a place in the last-16 stage of the tournament.
South Korea’s hopes of progressing are hanging by a thread and another defeat would put the country on the brink of elimination. If Shin Tae-yong’s men lose, and Sweden beat or draw against Germany, that will be the end of the road for the Aisan outfit.
The Taegeuk Warriors struggled in their opener, failing to muster a single shot on target, and a huge improvement is needed in the final third if they are going to stand any chance of progressing.
Korea have also failed to keep a clean sheet in 12 of their last 13 World Cup outings, conceding in each of the last seven, and the omens are not looking good ahead of Saturday’s clash.
One change is expected to the starting 11 with Kim Min-woo set to come in for injured left-back Park Joo-ho, who picked up an injury in the first half of the game against Sweden.
The only previous World Cup meeting between South Korea and Mexico was in 1998, with the Central Americans running out 3-1 winners in the group stages.
