Heung-Min Son is heading to a fourth World Cup, and South Korea enter the tournament with real expectation around them. The 33-year-old now plays for Los Angeles FC, will captain his country, and remains the centre of the story even as this squad looks stronger than a one-man act.
South Korea do not arrive as hopefuls scraping for momentum. They went through qualifying unbeaten, and that gives Hong Myung-bo, if the article body mentions him, a platform to demand more than a routine group-stage exit.
Why South Korea are being taken seriously
The numbers from qualifying are hard to dismiss. South Korea won 11 of their 16 matches and drew the other five, while also scoring 40 goals. That is a proper qualifying run, not a narrow escape, and it is why the mood around this squad feels more ambitious than cautious.
Barnaby Lane put it plainly in his preview for si.com: "South Korea is the most successful and consistent Asian nation in World Cup history." He also noted that Hong’s side won 11 of its 16 games and drew the remaining five, making them the only team on the continent to qualify unbeaten.
That matters because the draw is favourable enough for South Korea to expect a clean start. They open their campaign against the Czech Republic on 12 June, which gives them a first chance to turn qualifying form into tournament points.
The group should also suit the players around Son. Kang-in Lee, Hee-Chan Hwang, Min-jae Kim and Jens Castrop give the squad more depth than South Korea have always carried into past World Cups. Son is still the headline act, but the supporting cast looks strong enough to keep the focus off him for spells.
What Son's fourth World Cup means
This is the sharpest frame for the squad announcement. Son is 33, still captains South Korea, and is now doing it from LAFC rather than from Tottenham. That does not reduce his importance. If anything, it underlines how long South Korea have leaned on him, and how much of their ceiling still flows through him.
There is no need to oversell it as a career-defining moment. This is simply what South Korea have become with Son: a team that can talk about group-stage progress as an expectation, not a wish. The unbeaten qualifying run supports that view, and the opening game against the Czech Republic will show whether it translates quickly enough.
The warning, if there is one, is that qualifying does not guarantee the same control at a World Cup. South Korea have earned the right to expect more, but the first real test comes on 12 June.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
