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By Tyler Erzberger
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After their first game in the tournament, South Korea was one of the teams that impressed me the most at the World Cup.
After their third and final game against South Africa in Group A, they look like an alien zapped away all of their skill and replaced them with husks of players that shouldn't be at the tournament.
It was a group stage of two halves for South Korea, and it ended as ugly as possible on Wednesday night.
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Let's grade what might go down as one of the biggest chokes in South Korean sports history.
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Expectation
I was a South Korean believer entering this event. I had them in the same tier alongside the three hosts of the United States, Mexico, and Canada. While I would have still taken Mexico over them to top Group A, I thought there was a legitimate chance for them to upset the Mexicans and win the quartet.
A win over South Africa was already penciled in, and anything other than a result versus Czechia would have been considered a disappointment. This was a team that should, at the very least, finish with the group with four points.
Reality
First game? Awesome. South Korea went behind early in the second half to Czechia, but their overall positive and much more creative play eventually won the day, with them scoring two great goals and winning the match.
South Korea looked better than Mexico in their first game, even if they had a worse goal differential.
This was a team I thought could cause some of the bigger nations trouble in the knockouts.
That's when they played Mexico and looked like deer in headlights, playing frightened and afraid to do anything resembling positive play. South Korea came alive at the end of the game, but they were already down a goal and couldn't equalize. That would then lead to the game against South Africa, only needing a point to go through in second, and still looking like a team terrorized by ghosts.
No energy. No creativity. And in the end, South Africa stole a goal, held onto the lead, and South Korea will now need to see if their one win and two losses with a -1 goal differential is enough to make it through.
Regardless whether they're in the Round of 32 or not, their final two games were an indictment on the manager to the federation to the players on the field.
Final Grade: D
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