{"id":58387,"date":"2026-06-19T13:58:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T13:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/58387\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T13:58:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T13:58:06","slug":"son-heung-min-south-korea-control-destiny-after-mexico-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/58387\/","title":{"rendered":"Son Heung-Min, South Korea control destiny after Mexico defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAFC<\/a> superstar Son Heung-Min<\/a> made his record 147th appearance for South Korea, but couldn’t lead the Taegeuk Warriors to a 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> victory against co-hosts Mexico in Guadalajara on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Son was held scoreless throughout his 57-minute shift, subbed off for Oh Hyeon-Gyu shortly after Luis Romo’s goal paved the way for El Tri’s eventual 1-0 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s captain put a scare into the partisan crowd in Guadalajara, chipping goalkeeper Ra\u00fal Rangel before forcing Edson \u00c1lvarez to make a remarkable goal-line clearance, though the play was ultimately ruled offside.<\/p>\n

Son’s 12th World Cup match was his second against Mexico on the game’s biggest stage. He scored against El Tri at the 2018 tournament in a 2-1 defeat, and memorably helped Mexico advance to the knockout rounds with a late goal<\/a> vs. Germany.<\/p>\n

\n Very much alive<\/p>\n

Mexico advanced to the Round of 32 as Group A winners following the win, but South Korea remain in the driver’s seat to advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heading into the final group stage match against South Africa on Wednesday at Monterrey Stadium, South Korea are second in Group A with three points, secured in a 2-1 comeback victory<\/a> over Czechia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Son, who\u00a0joined LAFC<\/a> in August 2025 on a league-record deal from Tottenham Hotspur, is South Korea’s second all-time leading scorer with 56 goals, two behind Cha Bum-Kun.<\/p>\n

This season, Son leads MLS with nine assists while posting an additional 2g\/7a during LAFC’s run to the 2026\u00a0Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a>\u00a0semifinals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAFC superstar Son Heung-Min made his record 147th appearance for South Korea, but couldn’t lead the Taegeuk Warriors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[31,6262,29288,29238,13529,6263,33,5968],"class_list":["post-58387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-korea","tag-los-angeles-football-club","tag-match-reaction","tag-mexvskor-06-18-2026","tag-sendtonews","tag-son-heung-min","tag-south-korea","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}