2026 WC, which will probably be SON's 'Last Dance'... advance to the away quarterfinals + most goals scored, expectation for 'Great Work'
2026 WC, which will probably be SON's 'Last Dance'... advance to the away quarterfinals + most goals scored, expectation for 'Great Work'
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In fact, with the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup likely to be the last career World Cup for "captain" Son Heung-min (33, Tottenham), attention is already focused on whether he will be the main player to make a new history.
The South Korean national soccer team, led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, won 2-0 at Basra International Stadium in Basra, Iraq on the 6th (Korea time) in Group B of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup between North Korea and China.
Korea maintained its group lead with five wins, four draws, and 19 points. Iraq ranked third with three wins, three draws, and three losses.
As a result of this day, South Korea secured second place in the group regardless of the final result of the third qualifying match against Kuwait at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 10th, confirming its 11th consecutive finals since the 1986 Mexico Games.
The first and second place finishers advance to the World Cup finals in the third qualifying round, while the third and fourth places seek to advance to the finals again in the fourth qualifying round. Korea does not have to go to the fourth qualifying round, but goes straight to the finals.
In the 2026 North-China World Cup, South Korean soccer will try to advance to the quarterfinals on the road for the first time ever.
Korea made it to the semi-finals at the 2002 World Cup Korea-Japan. It made it to the round of 16 best teams at the 2010 South African Games for the first time. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he also succeeded in advancing to the round of 16 at his second away tournament.
For now, Hong Myung-bo's primary goal is to advance to the round of 16. If so, Korea will achieve its goal of advancing to the round of 16 for the second consecutive year following the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
For Son, the North Korea-China World Cup is expected to be the "last dance" of the World Cup. The World Cup kicked off on June 11, 2026, and runs through July 19, and Son, who was born on July 8, 1992, will be able to celebrate his 34th birthday during the tournament.
As Son Heung-min will turn 38 by 2030, there is a possibility that the upcoming tournament will be his last stage. This also means that the "golden generation" who led the team to the round of 16 at the 2022 Qatar World Cup will be the last to unite. The lineup, which runs from Son Heung-min to Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton) to Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), is said to be the strongest combination that cannot be seen again in Korean soccer history.
Attention is also focusing on whether Son will continue his scoring streak. He scored his World Cup debut goal in the match against Algeria (2-4 losses) in the third group match of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He also scored goals in the second group match against Mexico (1-2 loss) and the third match against Germany (2-0 win) in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, scoring a total of three goals in the tournament.
He also has three consecutive offensive points in the 2022 Qatar World Cup group stage match against Portugal (2-1 win) by helping Hwang Hee-chan score the come-from-behind winning goal.
Son, who has become the first Korean player to score goals in two consecutive World Cup matches, is tying for first place with the most goals (three goals) by a Korean player in the history of the World Cup along with Ahn Jung-hwan and Park Ji-sung (retired). If he scores one more goal at the North-China World Cup, he will stand alone at the highest level.
The tournament will be expanded from 32 countries to 48 countries. If South Korea passes the group stage, the tournament will begin from the round of 32. As the schedule has become tighter, 메이저사이트 physical strength and injury management have become more important.
Attention is being paid to whether Son Heung-min will write a new record for the most goals in his career at the World Cup and also write the history of South Korean soccer's first away quarter-finals.