Mexico impresses again in victory over South Korea

Final score: Mexico 2-1 South Korea

That was fun! El Tri conceded a late wondergoal, but otherwise, they were well in control during this game. Chucky Lozano impressed yet again, while the midfield of Hector Herrera, Andres Guardado and Miguel Layun dominated the game.

Mexico hasn’t completely clinched a place in the Round of 16, but they’re likely through. It would take a true disaster scenario to knock them out. Even if the result in Sweden vs. Germany doesn’t help them, Mexico can probably rotate in their final group game and start planning for the knockout rounds. South Korea, meanwhile, needs a Germany win and a set of miracles to go through. Their World Cup is likely coming to an end.

GOAL Son Heung-Min! Mexico 2-1 South Korea

Wow, the Koreans are going to make a stoppage time push for a result. Son Heung-Min scores an absolutely world class goal from 25 yards. Nothing Memo Ochoa could do.

84’ — South Korea’s last roll of the dice is Chul Hong for Min Woo-Kim, which is... a slightly attacking fullback change. OK.

Four yellows is the ref being lenient. The Koreans have played dirty.

Jung with South Korea's fourth card of the evening for an elbow straight to Chicharito's chest.
— FMF State of Mind (@FMFSoM) June 23, 2018

77’ — One sub for each team. Giovani dos Santos on for Carlos Vela, Jung Woo-Young on for Moon Seon-Min. A couple of like-for-like changes.

75’ — South Korea’s World Cup looks like it’s coming to an end and they’re mad. Ki just hacked the heck out of Memo Ochoa after he claimed the ball.

The attack came off a turnover by Marquez, by the way. Yikes.

71’ — “Tecatito” Jesus Corona is on for Chucky, who has earned a rest.

70’ — South Korea certainly isn’t giving up. Ochoa just had to make a tough save on Hwang from 20 yards.

68’ — Mexico boss Juan Carlos Osorio is going to settle things down. The legendary Rafa Marquez is on for Andres Guardado.

GOAL Mexico! “Chicharito” Javier Hernandez makes it Mexico 2-0 South Korea

It’s Chicharito’s 50th goal for El Tri, and it finished off a gorgeous counter. The star of the show was Chucky Lozano, who smoked the entire Korean defense, drew attention to himself, then laid the ball off to his teammate. Chicharito just applied the finish.

62’ — Carlos Vela just curled a gorgeous shot attempt just over the bar. Is El Tri going to regret these misses?

Meanwhile, Lee Sueng-Woo is coming on for the Koreans. He’s a young Barcelona product, currently at Verona. He replaces Ju, who had a rough game. It’s a super attacking change.

58’ — Andres Guardado will be wondering how he didn’t score. He just ripped a rocket from 15 yards, but Cho Hyun-Woo came up with a truly world class reaction save.

56’ — Memo didn’t see a stinging shot by Ki Seung-Yung at first — it came through a lot of traffic — but he eventually reacted well to make a comfortable stop. Mexico is playing well and very much on top, but South Korea looks capable of equalizing too.

53’ — Penalty shout for South Korea but they’re not getting one. The ball hits Salcedo’s hand, but while it’s pressed up against his chest.

50’ — Chucky blasts one into outer space. Mexico really should have two or three goals but they can’t shoot tonight.

46’ — We’re back. If this game ends 1-0 I will eat my shoes live on Twitch.

Halftime score: Mexico 1-0 South Korea

That was a really fun half. Could have easily been more like 3-2. Mexico has eight shots to South Korea’s five, but they’ve been high quality opportunities for both teams. Expect fireworks in the second half.

43’ — Chucky just burst through three defenders and shot over the bar when it looked like he was going to score. This dude is a big talent. Made that run look easy.

39’ — Son absolutely smokes the Mexico defense, but Ochoa is ready and easily puts the ball out for a corner. He’s building off his performance against Germany, been flawless so far here.

31’ — Hector Herrera hauled down Hwang, but Son blasted the resulting dangerous free kick over the bar.

28’ — Huuuuuge miss Miguel Layun. Poor guy, he missed a half-dozen shots against Germany, and he just put another one over the bar from 15 yards.

GOAL Mexico! Carlos Vela scores a penalty, Mexico 1-0 South Korea

Vela feints left, gets the Korean keeper to dive, then puts it down the middle. Excellent penalty.

PENALTY Mexico! Jang Hyan-Soo is called for a handball.

Oh no. Jang had his arm extended and blocked a pass. Good call.

23’ — Huge save Memo Ochoa! He tipped a header from Ki over the bar after a corner.

And Mexico almost scores on the counter after the next corner! Miguel Layun delivered a low cross to the far post and it was just outside the reach of Chucky Lozano’s outstretched foot.

22’ — Another dangerous break for South Korea! Son Hueng-Min got in behind the defense, but the El Tri defenders recovered well. Both Carlos Salcedo and Hector Moreno got blocks in on his two shots.

13’ — South Korea with the best move of the match, but it ends with Hirving Lozano getting wrecked. Hwang Hee-Chan beat multiple defenders down the left and crossed to the back post, where Lee Young took a big swing, but he got very little ball and a lot of Chucky.

7’ — This is going to be a little different than the Mexico-Germany game. South Korea are playing their strikers about as deep as Germany played Toni Kroos.

1’ — Kickoff! South Korea has switched from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 formation, with no true No. 9. The two strikers are both wide players for their club teams. Also, keep an eye on South Korea’s No. 8, Ju Se-Jong, who’s going to be the man to try to start attacks with long passes.

10:52 a.m. — It looks like the crowd in Rostov is going to be heavily in El Tri’s favor.

Mexico vs. South Korea lineups

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Mexico runs out the same lineup as they did in their victory over Germany. South Korea, meanwhile, was not happy after a loss against Sweden. Park Joo-Ho, Koo Ja-Cheol and Kim Shin-Wook have all been dropped. Keep an eye out for new starter Ju Se-Jong, who loves playing ambitious attacking passes.

Mexico will square off against South Korea on Saturday in its second Group F match of the World Cup. The game will take place in the Rostov Arena in Rostov-On-Don, Russia at 11 a.m. on FOX and Fox Sports Go.

Mexico enters the match filled with momentum after defeating the 2014 World Cup champions Germany. South Korea will try to bounce back from its 1-0 loss to Sweden in the first game of the group stage.

These teams haven’t met each other in the World Cup since 1998. South Korea’s program was in a much different place at that time, when El Tri won 3-1.

While Mexico comes in as favorites, they’ll be facing a much different challenge in this match than their opener. Unlike Germany, who played wide-open, South Korea is likely to play more defensive and organized. El Tri struggled in warm-up friendlies against teams that prioritized shape over scoring.