South Korea coach Hong Myung-bo has made an honest admission after suffering a 1–0 defeat to South Africa national football team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
South Korea came into the match against South Africa sitting second in the standings. However, following the defeat, they have dropped to third place and are now hoping to advance to the next round as one of the best third-placed teams.
Hong admitted that he takes responsibility for the result, especially given that the team suffered the loss on such a big stage.
“On a stage as big as this, the head coach is responsible for all the results,” Hong said at his postmatch press conference, as quoted by The Korea Times.
“Ultimately, I made wrong decisions that led to this outcome. There’s nothing more, nothing less to it.”
When asked whether the team had any off-the-field issues before the clash against Bafana, the South Korea coach insisted there were none, admitting that it was their worst performance of the group stage.
“Although we played poorly, we didn’t have problems of such nature,” he added.
“And even if we had some issues, I wouldn’t want to use them as excuses anyway. But this was indeed our worst match in the group stage.”