Son Heung-min<\/a> in the 16th minute in what’s probably the best piece of individual brilliance in defense at the 2026 FIFA World Cup so far. Had a decent game otherwise.<\/p>\nJohan Vasquez – 8\/10<\/h2>\n The mortar to Mexico’s brick, Vasquez delivered a defensive masterclass here. He blocked three shots while his excellent positional awareness saw the defender make two clearances too. His best moment though, was impeding Son when the Korean star ran forward in a brilliant counter but couldn’t find a way past Vasquez.<\/p>\n
Jesus Gallardo – 7.5\/10<\/h2>\n With seven defensive conributions, Gallardo too was a revelation at the back for Mexico. He didn’t let Korea get anything from his side of the field while also dominating the physical battles as the Toluca star won five of his seven ground duels.<\/p>\n
Brian Gutierrez – 6\/10<\/h2>\n With only 15 passes completed in 71 minutes of action, he endured a quiet evening. But Gutierrez produced a moment of real danger for Mexico in second half when he spun on the half-turn in midfield and got forward, only to find no support.<\/p>\n
Erik Lira – 7\/10<\/h2>\n Korea Republic left him with a ton of space to move, which Lira capitalized on to direct most of Mexico’s build-ups. He was also crucial to regaining possession in midfield.<\/p>\n
Luis Romo – 8\/10<\/h2>\n Like a gladiator in the arena, Romo relished every one-on-one battle and rarely came out second best, winning five of his seven ground duels. But his key moment was breaking the deadlock for Mexico in the 50th minute by pouncing on a spill from Korean custodian Kim Seung-gyu.<\/p>\n
Roberto Alvarado – 6\/10<\/h2>\n He produced a superb bit of play in the 20th minute by cutting in onto his left and curling a wonderful cross for Quinones to head which forced a lovely diving save from Seung-gyu. That was perhaps his only real moment of quality until Alvarado got subbed off in the 80th minute.<\/p>\n
Raul Jimenez – 6.5\/10<\/h2>\n Mexico’s prolific goalscorer had a rather tough evening against Korea Republic’s sturdy backline. But he was involved in Mexico’s goal as Seung-gyu made a mess of his attempt to claim the ball.<\/p>\n
In the 75th minute, the striker came in with a chance from a tight angle that forced another save from Seung-gyu.<\/p>\n
Julian Quinones – 7.5\/10<\/h2>\n His intelligent movement asked questions of Korea Republic’s defense as Quinones was a persistent threat throughout. The winger made a nice headed attempt early on in the match and set up Jimenez on two different occasions with superb crosses.<\/p>\n
Substitutes<\/h2>\nOrbelin Pineda – 6\/10<\/h2>\n Injected fresh legs in midfield to keep the tempo high.<\/p>\n
Obed Vargas – 7\/10<\/h2>\n Made a rasping drive from range that Seung-gyu was forced to parry.<\/p>\n
Israel Reyes – 4\/10<\/h2>\n Came on for the final 10 minutes but barely got a sniff of the ball.<\/p>\n
Santiago Gimenez – 5\/10<\/h2>\n Came a cropper in both his attempted duels and was beaten in the air too.<\/p>\n
Cesar Huerta – N\/A<\/h2>\n Not enough time to make an impact.<\/p>\n
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\nEdited by Nived Zenith<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mexico have sealed their place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup round of 32 after beating Korea Republic 1-0 in Group A. Luis Romo netted the only goal of the match in the 50th minute as the Taegeuk Warriors were denied by a splendid double save from Raul Rangel in the dying embers. Thanks for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-249023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}