"There's an air of gloom around the national team that's been there for a couple of years." That's not a rival fan talking. That's a sportswriter who covered South Korean football for years, and he's being generous.
South Korea beat Czechia 2-1 on the opening day of the 2026 World Cup, coming from behind to take three points in Group A. On paper, a winning start. In reality, the atmosphere back home is what commentator Seo Ho-jeong calls "bordering on indifference" — fans so deflated by two years of poor performances and institutional rot that a comeback win barely registers.
Hong Myung-bo and the mess he inherited — then made worse
Coach Hong Myung-bo is the central figure in all of this, and not in a flattering way. He captained South Korea at the 2002 World Cup, the team's all-time peak — a fourth-place finish that still defines how Koreans think about what's possible. His coaching record, including back-to-back K League titles with Ulsan HD FC, looked like the right CV for the job.
Then came the appointment itself. Reports surfaced that the Korea Football Association had bypassed proper procedure in hiring him — backroom favouritism, the kind of thing that poisons a tenure before it starts. Months in, Hong was hauled before a parliamentary committee. His defence: "I accepted the job because I was told I was the top candidate." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the process.
On the pitch, form has been consistently poor. A loss to lower-ranked Ivory Coast in March. A 1-0 defeat to Austria in the final warm-up. Questions about whether Hong even knows his best eleven haven't gone away. "Does he know how he wants to play?" is apparently still an open question weeks before the tournament started — that's a damning indictment of two years' work.
Popular YouTuber and former commentator Shin Moon-seon described World Cup preparation as the worst he's seen, and called the KFA a "withered flower with rotten roots." That's the temperature back home.
Son's last dance, and what happens if it goes wrong
Son Heung-min is 32, now at Los Angeles FC after his Tottenham chapter closed. This is, in all likelihood, his final World Cup. For any other nation, that storyline alone would generate enormous emotional investment. In South Korea right now, even that hasn't moved the needle much. The goodwill is there for Son personally — it's the system around him that fans have given up on.
South Korea sit 25th in the world rankings, five places above Canada. Group A — Mexico, South Africa, Czechia — is one they should navigate without too much drama. Reaching the quarter-finals would represent a genuine overperformance given the current mood. Getting past the round of 16, something they haven't done since 2002, would already feel like vindication for Hong.
The stakes for him personally are stark. In 2014, also as coach, South Korea crashed out in the group stage. On returning to Incheon Airport, the squad were pelted with sweets by fans — "eat yeot" being the Korean equivalent of a very pointed "get lost." Hong resigned shortly after. A repeat collapse in North America likely ends his second stint the same way, and this time the calls for wholesale KFA reform will be harder to ignore.
- South Korea beat Czechia 2-1 in their Group A opener, coming from a goal down
- They still face Mexico and South Africa in the group stage
- Their best World Cup finish remains fourth place in 2002, co-hosted with Japan
- They've failed to get past the round of 16 in every tournament since
- Japan, their regional rival, have been on a trajectory of steady improvement — South Korea have not
"Korea have been bouncing along from coach to coach not really establishing a proper national identity," said sportswriter John Duerden. "Contrast that with Japan's steady progress." That contrast, more than any single result, is what's eating at South Korean fans. One win over Czechia won't fix it.
