Fans perform a card stunt for South Korea during a Group B match against Kuwait in the third round of the Asian World Cup qualification at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul on June 10, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Five days after clinching a berth in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, South Korean players were feted by their home fans Tuesday at the country’s most famous football stadium.
South Korea closed out their qualification campaign Tuesday night with a 4-0 win over Kuwait at Seoul World Cup Stadium.
The Taegeuk Warriors came into this match having already punched their ticket to the World Cup, thanks to a 2-0 away victory against Iraq last Thursday.
That match was played in a hostile environment for South Korea, with nearly 56,000 partisan fans at Basra International Stadium in Basra, southern Iraq, cheering for the home team. With Iraq on the South Korean government’s travel ban list due to security risks, no South Korean fans or media made the trip for that match. And the South Korean team barely had time to savor their accomplishment afterward: they left Iraq on a chartered flight immediately after the final whistle. The match ended just past 5 a.m. Friday in South Korean time, and the team arrived back home about 13 hours later.
The Kuwait match offered a perfect opportunity for fans to welcome the players back and for the team to soak in some love from supporters. The match itself wasn’t going to have any bearing on South Korea’s World Cup chances, and South Korea were favored to win it anyway.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) had built up Tuesday night as one of celebration, from start to finish.
Fans hold up the South Korean national flag, Taegeukgi, during South Korea’s Group B match against Kuwait in the third round of the Asian World Cup qualification at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul on June 10, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
Before the players walked into the stadium for the national anthem, fans held up the national flag, Taegeukgi, that had been distributed at gates, and sang the team’s cheer song set to “Go West,” a Village People disco song covered by the Pet Shop Boys. The trumpet and percussion sections for the Red Devils, the official national team supporters group, led the prematch cheering.
In the 11th minute, fans pulled off a card stunt to form the words “We Daehan.” Daehan is a poetic contraction for Daehanminguk, the Korean name for the country’s official name, Republic of Korea. As a single word, “wedaehan” translates to “great.” The time of the show was a nod to South Korea’s 11th consecutive trip to the World Cup.
Following the victory, synth-pop group Glen Check performed as the players reentered the stadium to cap off their celebration. They walked around the stadium to acknowledge their supporters.
Somewhat dampening the festive mood, the boo birds came out for head coach Hong Myung-bo, who was jeered during prematch introduction and also during the match whenever the two scoreboards showed him.
Hong was an unpopular choice for the job when he was brought back for his second tour of duty last summer.
He had been booed heavily during the first match of the third round in September last year in Seoul, but skeptics were mostly silenced after South Korea reeled off three consecutive wins later on.
On Tuesday, fans likely voiced their displeasure with South Korea’s failure to clinch their World Cup berth in March when they had two cracks to do so at home. South Korea played consecutive 1-1 draws against Oman and Jordan, and waited three months to get the job done.
The attendance of 41,911 was also a far cry from recent national team matches at Seoul World Cup Stadium, which can hold about 64,000. The previous World Cup qualifying match here, against Palestine in September 2024, drew 59,579 fans, with the KFA saying 4,598 tickets went unsold.
(Yonhap)
