Mexico defeats South Korea to advance to World Cup knockout stage

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Three and a half years after its biggest failure on the World Cup stage in half a century, the Mexican national team needed only two games to advance to the knockout round of this tournament as winner of Group A.

Mexico’s defense held off a spirited final push by South Korea, earning a 1-0 win on Thursday night at Guadalajara Stadium in front of a fiery, announced sold-out crowd of 45,522.

“It was a very tough game,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Mexico took advantage of a defensive blunder by South Korea to win 1-0 and become the first team to advance to the knockout stage of the World Cup on Thursday.

It marks a major triumph for a team that failed to get out of the group stage in 2022 and now has won twice on home soil in front of jubilant crowds. Mexico players celebrated at midfield and waved to the fans who cheered and sang from the packed stands at Estadio Akron.

Luis Romo scored in the 50th minute after South Korea goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu collided with defender Lee Gi-hyuk and dropped the ball inside the area. Romo easily found the open net after picking up the loose ball.

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Highlights from Mexico’s 1-0 win over South Korea in the World Cup on Thursday.

The South Koreans nearly equalized in the 87th minute when Mexico goalkeeper Raúl Rangel stopped a header from close range by Cho Gue-sung, then made an even better save of Yang Hyun-jun’s attempt on the rebound, extending his right arm to keep the ball from crossing the line.

Mexico won Group A with six points in two matches, three more than South Korea and five more than the Czech Republic and South Africa, who drew 1-1 earlier Thursday in Atlanta.

The top two teams from each group move on to the knockout stage, along with the best eight third-place teams. A round of 32 is being played for the first time at the World Cup after the tournament was expanded to 48 teams.

Mexico opened with a 2-0 win over South Africa, while South Korea rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Czechs.

Mexico closes group play on Wednesday against the Czech Republic in Mexico City, while South Korea takes on South Africa in Monterrey.

Mexico had never won a World Cup game on home soil outside Mexico City. Before 2026, all but one of its nine World Cup matches at home, spanning the 1970 and 1986 tournaments, had been played at Estadio Azteca, with five wins and three draws. When it played in Toluca in 1970, it lost 4-1 to Italy in the quarterfinals.

Thursday’s match got off to a lackluster start, with neither team creating significant scoring opportunities and both squads getting loudly booed after the halftime whistle.

Mexico, ranked 13th, was eliminated in the group stage four years ago in Qatar. That followed seven straight eliminations in the round of the 16.

Azzoni writes for the Associated Press.

Here’s a look at the World Cup group standings after Thursday’s four-game slate:

Mexico 1, South Korea 0 — Full time

Mexico holds on to defeat South Korea and win Group A at the World Cup. The win allows Mexico to play its next three matches in Mexico City.

South Korea turned on the pressure in the final minutes but couldn’t capitalize off the first two cornerkicks of the game as Mexico’s defenders won battles in the box and cleared the ball away.

Mexico 1, South Korea 0 — 87th minute

Mexico goalkeeper Raúl Rangel made a spectacular double save, blocking a header from Cho Gue-sung, who then tried to flick the ball in with his foot, only for Rangel to make a save while sitting down on the goal line.

South Korea is starting to press more as it looks to at least force a draw.

Mexico midfielder Obed Vargas, who entered as a substitute in the 71st minute, got a quality shot on goal in the 86th minute, but South Korea goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu stopped the shot.

Mexico 1, South Korea 0 — 75th minute

Shortly after coming out of the hydration break, Mexico nearly doubled its lead.

Raul Jimenez corralled a deep cross feed on the far side from Julián Quiñones, but a well-positioned Kim Seung-gyu made the save.

Mexico 1, South Korea 0 — 57th minute

Son Heung-min, South Korea’s top goal-scorer was subbed out for forward Oh Hyeon-gyu.

Heung-min, the LAFC start, didn’t appear to be injured, but it seems like South Korea is intent on trying something different to get on the scoreboard.

South Korea also subbed out midfielder Lee Jae-Sung with forward Hwang Hee-chan.

Mexico 1, South Korea 0 — 50th minute

Luis Romo scored after a botched save attempt by South Korea goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu, taking the loose ball and kicking it into a wide-open goal to send the Guadalajara crowd into a frenzy.

Seung-gyu tried to catch a high volley outside the six-yard box, but hit his own teammate and the ball bounced to Romo, who kicked it into the goal.

South Korea will need to start taking some risks to test a stingy Mexico defense if they want to win Group A.

Mexico 0, South Korea 0 — Halftime

South Korea started to control the ball more Mexico’s side of the field in the final minutes of the half, but it seemed content on just keeping the ball away from the Mexico defense and not testing goalkeeper Raul Rangel.

South Korea’s strategy might be focused on trying to break Mexico’s focus and taking the crowd out of the game. The crowd in Guadalajara booed at halftime.

South Korea’s best scoring chance came in the 45th minute when Lee Jae-sung just missed getting his foot on a lob from outside the box that was just too far ahead of him.

Mexico had the best scoring chance of the first half when Julián Quiñones nearly scored on a perfect cross from Roberto Alvarado in the 20th minute, but goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu made a great save.

South Korea controlled the ball for 53% of the first half, but Mexico had the only shot on goal and won 20 of 36 duels.

Mexico 0, South Korea 0 — 40th minute

Both teams continue to look for opportunities, but are struggling to consistently work the ball in deep against the opposing defense. The first goal could be vital for opening up the match by forcing the trailing team to take more chances.

At this point, both teams are staying patient, more intent on not falling behind.

Mexico 0, South Korea 0 — 20th minute

Mexico finally worked its way deep into the South Korean zone and Julián Quiñones connected on a header that look destined to find the back of the net until South Korea goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu made an incredible diving save to grab the ball out of midair.

Roberto Alvarado set up the chance with a perfect cross to the edge of the six-yard box.

It was the best scoring chance of the game so far.

Earlier, South Korea almost caught out Mexico’s defense, with South Korea star Son Heung-min nearly getting to a deep pass behind the defense, but he was called offside.

Mexico 0, South Korea 0 — 12th minute

Both teams are playing very methodically so far as they try to set up potential rushes and test each defense. Mexico has been slightly more aggressive and controlled the ball a bit more (56% to 44%).

South Korea’s Lee Kang-in drew a yellow card for late contact, catching Luis Romo’s ankle.

Mexico looks to win again on home soil and clinch a first-place finish in Group A with a win over a tough South Korea team at the World Cup.

Mexico enters with a one-goal lead on differential heading into the match, but will be playing without defender César Montes, who drew a red card in stoppage time against South Africa.

In 1986, when Mexico became the first country to ever host the FIFA World Cup a second time, actor and director Diego Luna was only 6 years old. The year before, his hometown of Mexico City had been ravaged by a massive earthquake. That the World Cup happened at all in a nation recovering from such destruction seemed miraculous to a young Luna.

“It felt as though it wouldn’t happen. It was impossible given the magnitude of the disaster,” Luna, now 46, recalls in Spanish during a recent video interview. “And then when it did happen, you could witness what a balm it was for the people of Mexico City to host the opening ceremony, to welcome so many people from around the globe, and to receive such an outpouring of affection.”

In many ways, the most ambitious World Cup in history — which kicked off Thursday in Mexico City — has inspired more angst than anticipation, more fear than fervor.

The competition, returning to North America for the first time in more than three decades, has expanded to 48 teams and 104 matches, to be played over 39 days in 16 cities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The complex planning was eight years in the making.

Yet even before the competition opened with Mexico facing South Africa at the iconic Estadio Azteca, it has been marred by a number of controversies that threaten to overshadow the soccer and cloud the tournament’s legacy.

Representatives from the U.S., Mexico and Canada collaborated to win the right to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.

(Davide Barco / For The Times)

Hours before the 2018 World Cup kicked off in Russia, delegates representing more than 200 FIFA member states filed into a massive conference center rising above the left bank of the Moscow River.

There they would be voting to pick a host for the 2026 tournament and the ballot held just two candidates: Morocco, bidding for the World Cup for the fifth time, and a joint bid from the U.S., Mexico and Canada, marking the first time three countries offered to share host duties.

Months earlier it had appeared to be an election in name only. This World Cup, with 48 teams, would be the most complex sporting event in history and the North American bid was unique in both size and scope. The three countries had all the resources, infrastructure and logistical know-how to put on the tournament, having already combining to host six men’s and women’s World Cups.

The run-up to the World Cup in Los Angeles was marked by anxiety over how immigration enforcement, travel restrictions and anti-Trump backlash would affect the spirit and attendance of the games.

But on the streets of L.A. over the last week, something very different has happened.

Fans from a kaleidoscope of cultural backgrounds have come together to act out the kind of world — and city — they want to live in.

Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa has experienced nearly everything a Mexican soccer player could imagine. World Cups, titles, criticism, adulation, impossible saves and nights when he practically carried the weight of an entire national team on his own. But at 40, the legendary Guadalajara-born goalkeeper seems to be looking toward the end of his career with a different kind of calm. No drama. No exaggerated nostalgia. Like someone who knows exactly what he has achieved and what he still wants to give to Mexican soccer before saying goodbye.

The Mexican goalkeeper recently confirmed that the 2026 World Cup will be the last of his career with the Mexican national team and likely also as a professional soccer player, thus closing a career that will place him on a list reserved for few names in soccer history.

By virtue of his official call-up by Javier Aguirre for this summer’s tournament—hosted by Mexico, the United States, and Canada — Ochoa will become one of the three soccer players to attend six World Cups, a milestone he would share only with icons like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, the goalkeeper himself makes it clear that he never places himself on the same level as those legends

Santa Ana has long been a soccer-mad town, the type of place where amateur leagues have existed for decades, soccer stores seem as common as Catholic churches and park space is at such a premium that children play in the parking lots of county government buildings after workers leave for the day. After any big win for Mexico’s men’s football squad, thousands of ecstatic fans gather at the intersection of Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue well into the night.

But when Spain beat the Netherlands in the FIFA World Cup final in 2010, Santa Ana’s Fourth Street — the historical cultural and economic heart of Latino Orange County — was dead.

The city was in the height of its gentrification era, when bureaucrats were handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidies to out-of-towners with hipster businesses in a no-so-subtle way to push out working class Latinos.

The cantinas that my father frequented in the 1970s during his borracho days were long gone. Few of the bars and restaurants that took their place bothered to air the World Cup finale. Only one restaurant, Lola Gaspar, had a bona fide watch party, and I remember scoffing as a group of besotted gringos wearing Barcelona and Real Madrid jerseys clumsily kicked a soccer ball around after the match.

At that point, I predicted that Santa Ana would turn into a Silver Lake or Echo Park, a formerly diverse neighborhood turned insufferable and unrecognizable by newcomers. But a funny thing happened over the years: The children of those working class Latinos grew up and began reclaiming La Cuatro for themselves.

Today, downtown Santa Ana is packed with chipster — Chicano hipster — businesses, from coffee houses to barber shops, restaurants to vintage shops. And they have been slammed this World Cup.

Last night, Colombians wearing the country’s traditional bright yellow jersey were dancing to cumbias at Chapter One: The Modern Bistro long after Los Cafeteros beat Uzbekistan 2-1. As I write this from my wife’s Alta Baja Market, people are wandering around wearing one El Tri jersey or another. Cars wave el tricolor; vendors are setting up pop-up tents to sell Mexico flags, noisemakers and anything red, white and green.

If Mexico beats South Korea tonight, expect the pachangas in downtown Santa Ana to last long into the night. And expect me to be in the middle cheering loudly — not just for El Tri’s triumph, but for the Reconquista of downtown SanTana through soccer. We did it, raza.

Fox is under fire for missing on-field action during the first match of the World Cup last week.

Many sports fans were irate when the network aired a full-screen ad when play resumed after a water break during last Thursday’s Mexico–South Africa match.

In the second half, the referee called for the newly instated hydration break, but the call came during a replay, which led to a miscommunication over when the three-minute break actually started.

Mexican midfielder Edson Álvarez underwent surgery on his left ankle after getting injured during a match with his club team, Fenerbahce, last February. It kept him sidelined from both his Turkish squad and the Mexican national team.

At times, his participation in this summer’s World Cup was in jeopardy.

But thanks to his resilience, Álvarez will be Mexico’s captain as he plays in his third World Cup. He is one of the key leaders of coach Javier Aguirre’s team that will aim to reach at least the quarterfinals — a feat that has eluded El Tri in the last eight World Cups.

MEXICO CITY — FIFA president Gianni Infantino described Mexico City Stadium as a venue “blessed by the gods” and a “true cathedral of soccer.”

Azteca Stadium, as most people know it, is steeped in soccer history and is now the only venue to host three World Cup opening ceremonies. But the Mexican national team had never much World Cup success at the venue.

On Thursday, spurred on by most of the 80,824 fans in attendance and forwards Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez, Mexico managed to defeat South Africa 2-0 and securing its first opening match victory.

Goalkeeper Raúl Rangel was 18 years old and playing for Chivas de Guadalajara’s youth academy the last time Mexico faced South Korea in a World Cup match in 2018.

Three years ago, when asked who might be the next great goalkeeper for the Mexican national team, Rangel named himself ahead of veteran Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa. A bold statement for a player who was just making his professional debut.

On Thursday, the 26-year-old goalkeeper will defend El Tri’s goal during his second World Cup match at Guadalajara Stadium — where he usually plays home games with Chivas — when Mexico takes on South Korea at 6 p.m. PDT on Fox/Telemundo in the second match of Group A.

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