{"id":877882,"date":"2026-06-19T08:59:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T08:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/877882\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T08:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T08:59:25","slug":"mexico-keeper-raul-rangel-helps-el-tri-beat-south-korea-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/877882\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico keeper Ra\u00fal Rangel helps El Tri beat South Korea, advance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GUADALAJARA, Mexico\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Three and a half years after its biggest failure on the World Cup stage<\/a> in half a century, the Mexican national team needed only two games to advance to the knockout round of this year\u2019s tournament as winner of Group A.<\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s defense held off a spirited final push by South Korea, earning a 1-0 win<\/a> on Thursday night at Guadalajara Stadium in front of a fiery announced sellout crowd of 45,522.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very tough game,\u201d Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said.<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu made a mistake in the 50th minute, failing to stop what appeared to be a simple cross and bobbling the ball. That allowed Mexico\u2019s Luis Romo to easily tap the ball into the net and claim a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, a mistake was going to tip the scales,\u201d Aguirre said.<\/p>\n

\"Mexico <\/p>\n

Mexico goalkeeper Ra\u00fal Rangel blocks a shot from South Korea\u2019s Son Heung-min during their World Cup match at Guadalajara Stadium on Thursday.<\/p>\n

(Natacha Pisarenko \/ Ap Photo\/natacha Pisarenko)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always want to be there; I felt it, and I got the chance,\u201d said Romo, who started the game after starting the opener on the bench \u2014 a strategic change by the Mexican coach that paid off.<\/p>\n

South Korea put pressure on the Mexican team throughout the game. Late in the scoreless first half, Jae-sung Lee came close to giving South Korea the lead. Aguirre hoped his team would shake off nerves following the emotional opener at Azteca Stadium and show more bite in its second game against South Korea, but his team didn\u2019t have much power behind its attack during the game\u2019s first 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

The crowd in Guadalajara grew frustrated and began booing the Mexican national team\u2019s performance at the end of the first half. <\/p>\n

Mexico, however, won back their cheers when it capitalized on South Korea\u2019s costly mistake and converted it into a goal.<\/p>\n

Obed Vargas replaced Romo in the 71st minute and was close to scoring a spectacular goal if not for Seung-gyu\u2019s save.<\/p>\n

El Tri earned a win without any other goals thanks, in part, to a great night by goalkeeper Ra\u00fal Rangel, who stopped a header by Cho Gue-sung in the 87th minute. Captain Edson \u00c1lvarez<\/a> helped turn away South Korea\u2019s attack late, holding up relatively well despite having left ankle surgery during the past year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a reflex,\u201d said Rangel, whose club team Chivas plays at at Guadalajara Stadium. \u201cI was very focused and stepped up when the team needed me, and I\u2019m happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

LAFC star and South Korea captain Son Heung-min<\/a> fired one shot over Mexico\u2019s goalkeeper in the first half, but \u00c1lvarez cleared it off the line before the referee ruled Son was offsides.<\/p>\n

South Korea finished controlling possession 58% of the time, but it only earned two shots on target.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a good game because they didn\u2019t let us do much,\u201d Aguirre said.<\/p>\n

Mexico was coming off a comfortable 2-0 victory over South Africa, while the South Koreans had defeated the Czech Republic 2-1, marking their first World Cup opening-match win since 2010.<\/p>\n

During the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Mexico was eliminated in the group stage for the first time since 1978, breaking a streak of seven consecutive appearances in the knockout rounds. However, playing on home soil, the team\u2019s goal is to emulate El Tri\u2019s achievements in 1970 and 1986, when they reached the quarterfinals \u2014 the country\u2019s best World Cup finish.<\/p>\n

Due to the new 48-team format, Mexico would need to win two knockout-round matches and reach a sixth game to realize its goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking it one step at a time; first, there\u2019s the third game,\u201d Romo said.<\/p>\n

\"Mexico's <\/p>\n

Mexico\u2019s Luis Romo celebrates with his teammates after scoring during a match against South Korea at Guadalajara Stadium on Thursday.<\/p>\n

(Natacha Pisarenko \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

After the win over South Korea, Mexico will close out group play against Czechia at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on Wednesday. El Tri will get to play the first two games of the knockout round \u2014 should it win the first one \u2014 at Azteca Stadium, a venue where it has never lost a World Cup game.<\/p>\n

South Korea has four points and will be favored when it plays South Africa Wednesday in Monterrey. If South Korea wins the match, it would be the Group A runner-up and advance to play the Group B runner-up on June 28 at SoFi Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want all nine points,\u201d Vargas said of Mexico\u2019s goal entering its next game against Czechia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GUADALAJARA, Mexico\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Three and a half years after its biggest failure on the World Cup stage in half a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":877883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[356761,1582,276,356759,1910,42155,356764,154478,2961,224,5337,356762,2222,19020,356760,356765,554,15243,2030,356763],"class_list":["post-877882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-azteca-stadium","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-el-tri","tag-game","tag-goal","tag-guadalajara-stadium","tag-knockout-round","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mexican-national-team","tag-mexico","tag-mistake","tag-scoreless-first-half","tag-sellout-crowd","tag-shot","tag-south-korea","tag-win","tag-world-cup-stage"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116775956314998645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}