After three days of ‘hope torture’, Korean soccer suffered the humiliation of being eliminated from the World Cup group stage. Korea, led by coach Hong Myung-bo, was ranked 10th out of 12 teams in 3rd place in the group on the 28th when the group stage of the 2026 North and Central America World Cup ended and failed to advance to the round of 32 tournament given to the top 8 teams. Korea lost 0-1 in the final third game of Group A against South Africa on the 25th and fell to third place in the group with 1 win and 2 losses (3 points). Expectations were high for the 'number of cases' according to the results of other teams' matches over the next three days, but on this day, they were ranked 10th out of 12 teams in 3rd place in the group and their elimination was confirmed. It has been eight years since Korea was eliminated from the World Cup group stage in 2018. Korea's final ranking in this World Cup was 34th. This is the lowest ranking ever, surpassing 30th place in the 1998 France Tournament (1 draw, 2 losses). In the 1954 Swiss tournament, which was their first World Cup appearance, they were at the bottom of the tournament with 2 losses (0 points) and a goal differential of -16, but at that time, there were 16 teams participating in the finals. We started with the goal of advancing to the quarterfinals, the highest ever visiting World Cup.