No Miracle in the End: South Korean Football Eliminated from World Cup Round of 32

[Anchor]

It has been three days of the entire nation anxiously watching matches involving other countries, but in the end, there was no miracle. As the final remaining mathematical possibilities vanished today (June 28), South Korean football was forced to face the humiliation of failing to reach the World Cup Round of 32.

First, we go to Guadalajara, where Pyeon Gwanghyeon reports.

[Reporter]

With only one of the six match results hoped for by yesterday having materialized, the national team’s chances of advancing to the Round of 32 had already dropped to the 30 percent range. The team pinned its final hopes on two specific outcomes in the final matches of three groups held today.

However, those expectations were dashed time and again.

In the first match to conclude, the final game of Group L, we were rooting for a Ghana victory. Croatia scored the opening goal in the 31st minute, and although Ghana seemed to answer the prayers of Korean fans by scoring an equalizer in the 73rd minute, Croatia’s Vlasic headed in the winning goal 10 minutes later. The 2-1 victory for Croatia pushed South Korea to the brink.

Then, in Group K, Uzbekistan, which carried South Korea’s final hopes, scored an opening goal just 10 minutes into the match, appearing to keep the thread of hope alive. However, the Democratic Republic of the Congo scored three goals after the middle of the second half to secure a comeback victory, completely extinguishing South Korea’s chances.

With elimination from the Round of 32 already confirmed, the final match of Group J saw Austria draw against third-place Algeria, conceding one point. This caused our team’s ranking among the third-place teams to drop to 10th.

The three days of unprecedented "hope torture," during which we could only watch the results of others, have thus come to an end.

In the end, there was no miracle.

Out of the nine scenarios we had hoped for, only one came to pass, and all hope has now vanished.

(Video reporting: Hwang In-seok, Video editing: Kim Jin-won, Design: Jeon Yu-geun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.