Son Didn't Score. Korea Won Anyway.

You set an alarm for the early hours to watch South Korea’s World Cup opener. There was one reason.

To watch Son Heung-min score.

The match ended with Son scoreless. Not a single shot on target.

South Korea won 2-1.

This is not a story about a star having an off night. It is about a team that finally no longer needs its star to shine.

The short version (20 seconds)

• South Korea trailed Czechia 0-1 before turning it around to win 2-1 in their Group A opener
• Son Heung-min took six shots, none on target (Opta), created just one chance — then was subbed while it was still 1-1
• The men who flipped it were the supporting cast: Hwang In-beom (MOTM, goal and assist), Lee Kang-in (100% passing, assist), Oh Hyeon-gyu (a feverish winner)
• Coach Hong Myung-bo dared to pull Son with the game level — and it worked
• Group A after round one: Mexico and South Korea level on three points, meeting each other next

A game flipped in the final half-hour

The first half played out the way many feared. South Korea carried the pressure of a nation and could not finish.

In the 59th minute, Ladislav Krejci headed Czechia in front 1-0 (AP News).

From there, half an hour remained, and South Korea needed two goals from someone other than their captain.

In the 67th minute, Hwang In-beom drilled in the equaliser.

In the 80th, substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu fired the winner.

Three goals in twenty-one minutes turned a side about to lose its opener into one holding its first three points — and not one of them had Son Heung-min’s name on it.

The truth about Son, that the numbers refuse to hide

The flattering version says Son sacrificed himself, created, and let the finishers finish.

The data says the opposite.

Son played shoot-first all night. He spent five shots in the first half alone and ended with six attempts, none on target by Opta’s count, for a combined 0.65 xG — chances good enough to be goals, that became nothing (Fantasy Football Scout / Opta).

And the playmaking that defines his best club form barely showed. He created just one chance, against a typical baseline of 2.7 key passes a game in his latest LAFC season and as high as 6.0 per 90 in his final Tottenham campaign.

Son Heung-min · South Korea vs Czechia	Figure (Opta)
Total shots	6
Shots on target	0
xG	0.65
Chances created	1
Substituted	69th minute

This is the definition of a star’s off night. And it is exactly where the story gets interesting — because the best teams are not measured when the star burns bright. They are measured when the star goes dark.

Yet Son still tortured Czechia without touching the ball

So why did South Korea come back at all? Part of the answer is what the shot and goal numbers cannot capture.

Even scoreless, Son’s runs in behind dragged Czech defenders out of shape all game. Czech coach Miroslav Koubek and midfielder Pavel Sulc admitted afterwards that tracking him broke their midfield so badly their attackers went “three minutes without touching the ball” in spells (Football Asian).

That is the deeper lesson. A star does not have to score to change a game — but a real team needs others ready to finish the space the star opens.

That night, South Korea had more than one of them.

The men who stepped up

Hwang In-beom — the midfield commander

Hwang In-beom, the Feyenoord midfielder, held the whole game in his hands. He logged a team-high 93 touches, completed 73 of 81 passes, and produced both the equaliser and the assist for the winner, taking man of the match in the process (AP News).

In the national-team structure he is the link between defence and attack — a role that never makes a headline like a captain’s goal, but the one that makes the team turn.

Lee Kang-in — the quietest masterclass

Lee Kang-in’s numbers barely look real. The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder passed at 100%, finishing 37 of 37, and assisted Hwang’s equaliser.

There was more. He completed five of six dribbles and drew four fouls — optical tracking flagged him as the first player to complete five dribbles in a single World Cup match since Eden Hazard in 2018 (Chosun / Opta) — and he took the highest rating of the entire opening day (Flashscore).

Oh Hyeon-gyu — the hero who came on with a fever

The match-winner’s story is one a scriptwriter would not dare. Oh Hyeon-gyu, the 25-year-old Besiktas striker, revealed afterwards that he had a fever of around 38C and a stomach bug before kickoff, and was doubtful even to make the bench (India Today).

Then he came on and scored the winner — his first World Cup goal (Korea Herald).

Hong Myung-bo’s bravest call

The real turning point was not on a player’s boot. It was in the coach’s head.

In the 69th minute, with the score level at 1-1 in a World Cup opener, Hong Myung-bo took his nation’s greatest-ever player off the pitch.

Sit with how bold that is. A game you cannot lose, a country’s expectations, and the man you remove is your 33-year-old captain with 56 international goals.

Hong’s plan had South Korea start in a fluid 3-4-3 with Son as a false nine to draw Czechia’s centre-backs out. Swapping in Oh, a genuine target man, forced the Czech defence to drop and mark him, opening the central space Hwang exploited for the winner just 11 minutes later (Chosun).

Taking the star off in that moment was not surrendering hope. It was trusting the depth of the team.

The depth that 2022 did not have

Against the side that reached the knockouts in Qatar in 2022, the clearest difference is the bench.

In 2022, Oh Hyeon-gyu travelled to the tournament purely as a non-rostered training partner, watching the senior squad from the side.

In 2026, he is the man the team trusts to fix a game in its decisive minutes (Korea Herald).

A team brave enough to take Son Heung-min off while level, then win on a goal and assist created entirely by the supporting cast, is a team that stands without leaning on one star — something earlier squads never had.

Group A after round one	P	Pts	GD
Mexico	1	3	+2
South Korea	1	3	+1
Czechia	1	0	-1
South Africa	1	0	-2

Hosts Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 to lead on goal difference, with South Korea second before the two meet in matchday two — a game that all but decides top spot.

What this night says about the road ahead

One game proves nothing permanent, and numbers from a single opener should be read with care.

But what this night says clearly is that the South Korea of 2026 is no longer Son Heung-min’s team alone.

On the darkest night of his recent years, the team shone brightest — because it had Hwang, it had Lee Kang-in, it had Oh coming on through a fever, and it had a coach who believed in them enough to take the star off the pitch.

Mexico are next. That game will test whether this depth is real or a one-night thing. Follow South Korea’s fixtures and rivals on the 2026 World Cup groups page, and read the bigger picture of Asia’s nine nations rising from visitors to contenders.