South Korea’s World Cup has been an uphill one. Not in terms of results, though, with Hong Myung-bo’s side — a figure of Korean footballing history — opening with a 2–1 win over Czechia. The atmosphere around it tells a different story, more political, more internal.
The players have decided to boycott their domestic press after comments slipped out from journalists back home, off-air, directed at Heung-min Son. Son, an icon in South Korea, arguably more than any player to have worn the shirt. It began during a training session ahead of the opener in Guadalajara, where the squad are based. Son was working separately, going through individual drills, when one of the Korean journalists present made light of it, questioning his distance from the group. Then the remark about military service, the unresolved narrative that still follows him.
“He didn’t even do it properly,” the journalist was heard saying.
Son was exempt after captaining South Korea at the 2018 Asian Games, later completing basic military training with the Marines in 2020. The comment, picked up on a live microphone, spread quickly online. Reaction inside the camp, immediate.
From that point, silence. After the win over Czechia, the players walked through the mixed zone, thanked the journalists, no questions taken. No deviation.
The KFA has taken over the matter. On 15 June it issued a statement condemning the language used by certain members of the domestic press, calling it “inappropriate and disrespectful”, speaking of “shock and disappointment”. The head of the press corps submitted his resignation, accepting responsibility for the breach and what followed. The federation later moved more firmly, warning journalists during a press conference, urging stricter standards of conduct.
None of it prevented South Korea from beating Czechia, moving top of the group ahead of Friday’s match against Mexico in Guadalajara. In some reports, the situation has even shifted something within the squad itself — a tightening rather than a fracture. The mood, it is said, at its highest point.
Not all tensions weaken a team.