{"id":3426,"date":"2026-06-12T16:21:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3426"},"modified":"2026-06-12T16:21:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:21:28","slug":"s-korea-defeats-czechs-2-1-to-make-strong-world-cup-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3426","title":{"rendered":"S Korea defeats Czechs 2-1 to make strong World Cup start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">South Korea got their World Cup campaign off to a winning start by beating the Czech Republic 2-1 Thursday after finally converting some of the many chances they created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until the 80th-minute mark it seemed that the Czechs would punish the Koreans&#8217; wastefulness, but substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu scored the decisive goal in a Guadalajara stadium that was far from full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rema, Selena Gomez - Calm Down (Official Music Video)\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WcIcVapfqXw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Son Heung-min&#8217;s Koreans had dominated the first half but were unable to find the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former Tottenham star blasted one effort over the bar before making a driving run to his left and evading two Czech defenders only to shoot wide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An entertaining second half began with the Czechs scoring against the run of play as Ladislav Krejci rose at the front post to power a header past Korean goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hwang In-beom finally made the Korean pressure pay with a clever equalizer as he faked a shot and then caressed the ball over Czech &#8216;keeper Matek Kovar on 67 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Czechs had a goal disallowed before Hwang added to his goal with an assist, crossing from the right for Oh to slot home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the final whistle sounded after a frantic end to the game, Son sank to the turf in joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">South Korea face co-hosts Mexico, who beat South Africa 2-0 in the tournament&#8217;s opening Group A game earlier Thursday, on June 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Czechs play the South Africans in Atlanta on the same day. <a href=\"https:\/\/japantoday.com\/category\/2026-fifa-world-cup\/south-korea-defeat-czechs-to-make-strong-world-cup-start\">(Japan Today)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea got their World Cup campaign off to a winning start by beating the Czech Republic 2-1 Thursday after finally converting some of the many chances they created. Until the 80th-minute mark it seemed that the Czechs would punish the Koreans&#8217; wastefulness, but substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu scored the decisive goal in a Guadalajara stadium [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[419,3522,3523,311,273],"class_list":["post-3426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-czech-republic","tag-oh-hyeon-gyu","tag-son-heung-min","tag-south-korea"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>S Korea defeats Czechs 2-1 to make strong World Cup start - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Korea got their World Cup campaign off to a winning start by beating the Czech Republic 2-1 Thursday after finally\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3426\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"S Korea defeats Czechs 2-1 to make strong World Cup start - 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