Victimized! South Korea suffers third consecutive World Cup loss to Mexico; Asian teams have lost all five matches against host nations, conceding 17 goals without scoring.

In the second round of Group A at the World Cup, which concluded on June 19 Beijing time, South Korea lost 0-1 to host Mexico, suffering their third consecutive World Cup defeat against this opponent.

South Korea started their campaign with a comeback 2-1 victory over Czech Republic. A win in this match would have secured early advancement, but they encountered their "nemesis" Mexico, who had beaten them in two previous World Cup group stages (1986 and 2018). Leveraging home advantage, Mexico prevailed once again.

In the 50th minute, South Korean goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu made a costly error. After catching the ball, he collided with a teammate and lost possession, allowing Mexico's Romo to slot the ball into an empty net and break the deadlock.

Although South Korea later substituted the underperforming Son Heung-min and Lee Jae-sung and deployed two center-forwards in an aggressive push, they failed to threaten Mexico's goal.

In the 87th minute, Cho Gue-sung missed a golden opportunity in front of the net. The match ended 1-0 in Mexico's favor. With this loss, South Korea has now lost all three of its World Cup encounters against Mexico.

Following South Korea's defeat, along with Qatar's 6-0 thrashing by Canada, Asian teams have now lost all five World Cup matches against host nations in history. They have not won a single game, failed to score a goal, and conceded a total of 17.

The previous three matches were: Iraq's 1-0 loss to Mexico in 1986, Saudi Arabia's 4-0 defeat by France in 1998, and Saudi Arabia's 5-0 loss to Russia in 2018.