From the prospect of the round of 16 to the harsh criticism of 44th place, Hong Myung-bo's "The reason for the extreme Hong Myung-bo Team evaluation"

*This content was translated by AI.

Foreign media's prospects are mixed ahead of the 2026 FIFA 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup. There are media that evaluate the power of the round of 16 beyond the round of 32, and there is also a shocking criticism that it ranks 44th out of 48 countries. It's simply the opposite.

The Athletic, a U.S. media outlet, ranked South Korea 16th out of 48 teams in the power rankings based on the history and recent performances of the teams that advanced to the 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup finals on the 2nd (Korea time). "If the main players do their part, it is the team that is most likely to rise high among Asian teams," said the media, which introduced South Korea, predicting that South Korea will advance to the round of 32 as second place in Group A and then surpass Bosnia and Herzegovina to the round of 16.

Another global soccer media outlet, GoalCom, also ranked South Korea 28th in the World Cup power ranking. Although the ranking fell sharply from 17th place in January, it is still evaluated as a player who has passed the group stage and advanced to the round of 32. Football Meets Data, a soccer statistics media, also set South Korea's probability of advancing to the round of 32 at 77% through simulation, the second highest in Group A after Mexico (90.3%).

Despite the fact that last month's consecutive losses to Ivory Coast 0-4 and Austria 0-1 were reflected, the optimistic outlook for foreign media to pass Hong Myung-bo Team's group stage and even advance to the round of 16 is clearly far from domestic public opinion, which is dominated by negative evaluation and prospects. Looking back at the atmosphere surrounding Hong Myung-bo Team, it is also a prospect that can't help but tilt one's head.

However, not all foreign media reviews are positive. The British daily Guardian made a shocking level of "harsh criticism" that South Korea's current power is the 44th out of 48 World Cup teams. The ranking is lower than Uzbekistan (34th) and Jordan (42nd), who will advance to the World Cup for the first time in their history. The teams that rank lower than Korea are Cabo Verde, Saudi Arabia, Haiti, and Curaçao. The magnitude of the impact is inevitably greater in that it is none other than the evaluation of influential British sites.

This is because the reference point for evaluating the Korean national team's power is very different from the foreign media's view toward Hong Myung-bo Team. For example, media that value Korea's power relatively highly focused on Hong Myung-bo Team or the composition of players and the organization of the World Cup group itself from the time of the Asian qualifying round for the last World Cup, when Korea was unbeaten (6 wins and 4 draws), while the Guardian, which criticized Korea at 44th place, evaluated its power with more weight on the recent trends and atmosphere of the Korean national team.

In fact, The Athletic said, "In order to recreate the glory of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, when Korea reached the semifinals for the first time in Asia, not only Son Heung-min (LAFC), who will be the leading star of the tournament, but also Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton) and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) need to grow one step further. He said, "Grouping is not bad," and introduced the Korean national team only to the extent that "it is a relatively good group because it is in Group A." It did not include information on the defeat against Ivory Coast and Austria in March, but only weighed on the face of the main players and the degree of organization.

Golcom, which ranked Korea 28th overall, also evaluated the Korean national team's performance with relatively long breath, including mentioning it until the days of former German coach Jurgen Klinsmann. However, he mentioned the recent defeat against Ivory Coast, and the actual power ranking fell more than 10 places from January, but the overall evaluation is somewhat far from domestic criticism.

On the other hand, the Guardian's analysis, which evaluated Korea for the 44th time, focuses more on recent performance and tactics. "When asked about Son Heung-min's use as a starter, head coach Hong Myung-bo replied, 'It's too early to mention it,' but this was a question that I could not even imagine until recently," the Guardian said. "It has been confirmed that Son Heung-min is not the only concern for the Korean national team due to the 0-4 defeat against Ivory Coast."

"There are concerns that all recent situations are similar to the gloomy atmosphere during the 2014 Brazil World Cup, when Hong Myung-bo took the helm of the national team for the first time," he said. "At the center of the controversy is Hong Myung-bo's three-back strategy, which consists of defenders who do not play in the three-back tactic in his team." South Korea also lost 0-1 against Austria, leaving only questions in both the ball and defense during the A-match in March. It is not a desirable situation in terms of timing," he pointed out.

In the end, unlike other media that have positively evaluated Korea, the Guardian has focused more on the atmosphere surrounding Hong Myung-bo Team itself, such as three-back tactics and poor performance, which have recently been at the center of controversy in Korea. Although there may be views that disagree with the 44th ranking itself, the Guardian's "criticism" seems to be gaining more persuasive power in that it is an evaluation that is in line with the domestic criticism that has reached its peak toward Hong Myung-bo Team due to consecutive losses against Ivory Coast and Austria.

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*This content was translated by AI.