Key events
What a wild, wacky format this is, giving some teams much easier knockout routes than others.
I just set up Bracketology with the most plausible scenarios and found this:
USA: Bosnia, then Egypt or Senegal. They could certainly lose one of those games, but compare that with …
France: Sweden, then almost certainly Germany.
Argentina: Uruguay, then likely Belgium.
The full round of 16 if all the favorites win:
Germany-France
Canada-Netherlands
Ghana-Spain
USA-Egypt
Brazil-Côte d’Ivoire
Switzerland-Colombia
Argentina-Belgium
And a massive game …
England-Mexico
Yikes.
So with permutations running through my head, I’ll sign off until the USA kick off in 20-something hours. Thanks as always for following along with us here.
South African manager Hugo Broos: “It’s very difficult to explain how I feel. It’s a fantastic experience. Technically I think we were very good. It was difficult for South Korea to find space. It was 90 minutes of heart beating and hoping that the game would be as soon as possible finished.”
Next up for South Africa: Canada, in Los Angeles.
Both teams are in the knockout rounds for the first time. That also means one team will reach the Round of 16 for the first time.
Peter Oh again: That was Seoul-crushing.
South Korea’s anxious wait …
This perennially solid team wound up with 3 points and a goal difference of -1.
They’ll need for those numbers to be better than four third-place teams. They’ve already got one – Scotland was third in Group C with 3 points and a -3 GD.
Other results that could help South Korea:
D: Australia over Paraguay or a Paraguay win by 2 or more goals
E: Ecuador and Curacao fail to beat Germany and Côte d’Ivoire.
F: Japan over Sweden by 2 or more goals
G: Egypt over Iran
H: Spain over Uruguay
I: Senegal fail to beat Iraq by at least 2 goals
J: Austria over Algeria or an Algeria win by 2 or more goals
K: DR Congo fail to beat Uzbekistan
L: Ghana over Croatia and Panama don’t rout England
Final Group A standings
9 pts. Mexico
4 pts. South Africa
3 pts. South Korea
1 pt. Czechia
Final: South Africa 1-0 South Korea
What a stunner. On paper, you wouldn’t say this is anything close to the best team South Africa have sent to the World Cup, but it’s the first team to get through to knockout play. Yeah, sure, it’s 32 instead of 16, but they still finished second in their group, ahead of fancied South Korea and Czechia sides.
90 min +6 Last chance time. South Korea blast it forward but almost get beat on the counterattack.
Now this will be the last chance …
90 min +5 Good cross for Cho, but again a South African defender gets there in the nick of time.
90 min +4 Long clearance for South Korea, but South Africa reclaim – only to play a rash pass forward. But South Korea give it back.
90 min +2 South Africa want a foul on Cho as he contests a header, but no, there’s nothing there. Corner kick, and it looks like South Korea might get it on frame until a late effort.
Then a CHANCE! The ubiquitous Castrop chips a ball in from an angle, and Williams has to hang on while an onrushing forward leaps past him.
90 min As usual, six minutes of stoppage time.
89 min South Korea are finally getting creative. A nifty dummy helps them get the ball down the left for a cross that forces a tough defensive header.
88 min Son has the ball and can shoot! It’s just not a good idea because there are a bunch of defenders in front of him!
Reminder: South Africa have never made a World Cup knockout stage. They’re a few minutes away from doing it.
87 min Ball over the top for Cho, but he’s stuck between two defenders. Still, they get a throw-in deep in the South African half.
86 min The peripatetic Castrop works on the left and earns a corner. Taken quickly, played over the 6-yard box and headed back to the center, but then cleared. They’ve looked somewhat dangerous on set pieces.
85 min Williams powerfully leaps off his line and punches clear. Two players drop to the grass, but they get back up.
84 min South Korea work down the right, and this cross isn’t that bad. It’s headed out for a corner.
83 min South Korea go over the top to Castrop, who crosses … behind both South Korean forwards in the box. This team aren’t playing like a team we’ll miss in the round of 32.
Mary Waltz writes: “South Korea seems to have no imagination, they seem so unlikely to score. South Africa seems more likely to score another on the counter.”
I’d love to see a stat on the accuracy of their crosses. It has to be 20% at most.
80 min Mofokeng barely beats the count to get off the field as he’s substituted out. Jaylen Adams is the new man in. That’s three South African subs, but did they use all their windows?
79 min South Africa get the free kick and again try to run everything parallel to South Korea’s high defensive line. South Africa clearly expected South Korea to defend this way, but nothing they’ve tried has succeeded.
78 min Lee Kang-in plays one-man keepaway from the South African defense, finally passes, gets it back, then tries to thread a pass to a couple of forwards. But South Korea just aren’t finding those spaces.
Yellow card to Cho for a very high boot.
76 min Mudau with the clothesline tackle on Son, curiously not worthy of the referee’s cards. Didn’t he have a reputation for flashing plastic?
74 min Final sub for South Korea. Cho Gue-sung replaces Oh Hyeon-gyu.
For South Africa, Rayners replaces the goal-scorer Maseko. who claps toward the crowd even though there’s no notable ovation. Did anyone realize that he scored?
72 min South African fans are dancing. It’s very festive. But the majority of the crowd was leaning toward … well, Mexico first, but South Korea second. They seem less interested.
Yellow card to Modiba for plowing into Castrop, who has been lively here in his first game of his World Cup debut.
69 min: Drink!
Mark Maniak writes: “Enjoying your MBM, as well as that of Alex Abnos. They come across as more entertaining than the respective games. …
Sorry to hear that.
“I don’t know if you know the answer to this question, but looking at the mind boggling third place possibilities, I’m wondering what sort of mechanism did FIFA come up with to determine who plays whom in the 32 team Squamish that passes for the first knockout stage. Mexico, for example has at least 4 or 5 possible opponents from various third place finishers. Then there is the question of how the 2nd place finishers line up with the various 1st place finishers. My head is already spinning.
“I may just sleep through that stage. Wake me when we get to 16.”
I don’t know, but the people who created our Bracketology page do!
65 min South Korea can’t find a way through, and Castrop fouls in frustration.
A fourth South Korean sub – Park Jin-seop replaces … Kim Min-jae? Seriously? The Bayern Munich man who has had South Korea’s best scoring chance and several great defensive plays?
Oddly enough, that interrupted the crowd’s celebration of the Mexico goal. It’s as if they didn’t quite know what to do when someone scored in the game for which they bought tickets.
Goal! South Africa 1-0 South Korea (Maseko 63)
This time, the South Korean defense leaves a seam for the AEL Limassol forward to fire a laser along the ground inside the near post.
63 min Moremi replaces Appollis as the crowd goes wild – because they’ve seen the Mexico score.
Make it 2-0 Mexico. Second place is there for the taking.
60 min SHOT ON GOAL! It’s a good cross for South Korea, headed to the far post, but Williams scrambles to make the save.
60 min As you were. South Korea possess. South Africa steal and try a fast break. South Korea disrupt. Repeat.
