After South Korea won against Uruguay from the 2022 World Cup, Son Heung-min targeted Brazil as the next victim. South Korea will meet another South American team, Brazil, in the round of 16 later.
Taeguk Warriors – nicknamed South Korea – surprised by qualifying as runners-up in Group H. A 2-1 win over Portugal was achieved on Friday 2 December 2022 evening WIB after Ricardo Horta’s opener (5′) was replied by Kim Young-gwon (27′ ) and Hwang Hee-chan (90+1′).
The victory also made Paulo Bento’s squad return Uruguay because of superior goal productivity. However, they will face a big direct test in the next phase, namely against the five-time world champion, Brazil, on Tuesday (6/12/2022).
Even knowing that it will be tough. However, Son Heung-min hopes that South Korea’s surprise can continue by bringing back the Samba Team – the nickname for the Brazilian National Team.
“This is good, but our journey is not over. We always talked about reaching the last 16 as our goal, but now we have to try to go beyond that,” said Son as quoted by Yonhap News Agency, Saturday (3/12/2022).
“Everyone is very excited now but come tomorrow, we have to start preparing for the next game with a new mindset. Hopefully we can create another miracle,” he added.
Son Heung-min and his colleagues have indeed qualified for the last 16 of the four-year tournament in a very dramatic way. They only excelled in goal productivity over Uruguay, who both scored four points, to secure second place in Group H standings.
The reason is, La Celeste -Uruguay’s nickname- was only able to win 2-0 over Ghana in the last match. In fact, if they can score one more goal then they will win on goal difference from South Korea and qualify for the next phase.
Now, it’s worth waiting to see if Taeguk Warriors can make another surprise by defeating the Samba Team in the round of 16. Given the many surprises at the 2022 World Cup where the underdog team can overthrow the giant team, it seems that it is not impossible for them to beat Tite’s team.
