{"id":494337,"date":"2026-06-25T05:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/494337\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:04:09","slug":"fifa-world-cup-south-africa-stun-south-korea-to-make-world-cup-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/494337\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: South Africa stun South Korea to make World Cup history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">The Asian team started strongly, with stand-in captain Kim Min-jae\u2019s powerful header blocked on the goalline by Aubrey Modiba before Lee Kang-in flashed wide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">South Africa quickly settled, playing with hunger and adventure, but their finishing was wasteful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">They seemed certain to take the lead in the 30th minute when the ball fell to Evidence Makgopa after South Korean goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu parried Thalente Mbatha\u2019s shot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">But Makgopa could only tamely poke the ball straight at the goalkeeper from close range.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Son came on at the start of the second half, one of three changes made by coach Hong as he sought to change the script.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Early in the second period Maseko squandered another good position while South Korea forward Oh Hyeon-gyu tested goalkeeper Ronwen Williams at the other end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">As news filtered through from Mexico City that the host nation were leading against the Czech Republic, there was an added sense of urgency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">South Africa seized their moment with Tshepang Moremi crossing to Maseko, who this time kept his cool, firing home inside the near post in the 63rd minute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">South Korea pushed hard in the closing stages but ran out of time, meaning South Africa will face co-hosts Canada in Los Angeles on June 28.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Mexico topped the group with nine points after winning all three of their matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/passes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/passes\">TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Asian team started strongly, with stand-in captain Kim Min-jae\u2019s powerful header blocked on the goalline by Aubrey&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[190,74,117724,4498,10542,5506,142655,36862,1888,1861,22946,13734,5812,111,139,69,10521,19328,75700,1240,213,90461,165,28050,2044,61,46345,377],"class_list":["post-494337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-africa","tag-after","tag-astonishing","tag-beat","tag-cup","tag-defeat","tag-dismal","tag-fifa","tag-first","tag-history","tag-knockout","tag-korea","tag-make","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opening","tag-reach","tag-rounds","tag-south","tag-sports","tag-stun","tag-their","tag-thursday","tag-time","tag-to","tag-turnaround","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}