S. Korea rout Kuwait to finish World Cup qualifiers with undefeated record

South Korea defeated Kuwait 4-0 at home Tuesday to wrap up their World Cup qualifying campaign in style, celebrating their early qualification for the big tournament in front of delighted supporters.

Lee Kang-in, Oh Hyeon-gyu and Lee Jae-sung scored a goal apiece in the second half at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul, while Kuwait had an own goal in the first half, with 41,911 fans on hand to watch the team’s final Group B match in the third round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers.

South Korea, world No. 23, finished first in their group with 22 points from six wins and four draws, while 134th-ranked Kuwait finished last with five points on five draws and five losses. With the top two teams from three groups in this round qualifying for the World Cup, Jordan secured the second ticket out of Group B.

South Korea had already clinched their World Cup berth with a 2-0 away win over Iraq last Thursday. With the business taken care of, head coach Hong Myung-bo had said in the days leading up to Tuesday that the Kuwait match would be a proving ground for young and inexperienced players.

Hong lived up to his word by changing seven players from the lineup that started against Iraq, with six of those players coming in with fewer than 10 caps.

And the new faces did the heavy lifting on the offensive end in the breezy win on a cool night in Seoul.

This was only South Korea’s second win at home in five matches in the third round.

The next set of international matches for South Korea will be against China, Hong Kong and Japan at the East Asian Football Federation E-1 Football Championship in July.

In goal against Kuwait, Lee Chang-geun made just his second international appearance at age 31, with Jo Hyeon-woo getting a breather after starting all nine previous matches of the third round.

On defense, fullbacks Lee Tae-seok and Seol Young-woo made their second straight starts, with Lee Han-beom, 22, making his international debut and Kim Ju-sung, 24, collecting just his third cap.

Veteran defensive midfielder Hwang In-beom had a new partner in the 27-year-old Won Du-jae, who played in his first national team match in two years for his eighth cap.

Lee Kang-in was back as an attacking midfielder but had two new sidekicks in Bae Jun-ho and and Jeon Jin-woo. Bae, 21, wasn’t initially selected for the team, but Hong plucked him off the under-22 national team Saturday specifically for Tuesday’s match. Jeon, 25, made his national team debut against Iraq and assisted the team’s second goal by Oh Hyeon-gyu, a 24-year-old striker who started Tuesday after coming off the bench last week.

Longtime captain Son Heung-min, left off the squad list last week with a foot injury, was back on the bench at the start of Tuesday’s match.

Among the new faces, Bae had a couple of close calls in the early going. In the 11th minute, Bae’s header set up by a Seol Young-woo cross deflected off the head of a defender before striking the right post.

Some eight minutes later, Bae fired a right-footed shot from the left side of the box, with goalkeeper Sulaiman Abdulghafoor making a jumping save to keep the match goalless.

South Korea grabbed the lead at the half-hour mark with a fortuitous bounce, as Hwang In-beom’s corner went in off the left leg of defender Fahad Al-Hajeri. Jeon Jin-woo, who tried to put his head on the cross, was initially credited with the goal.

After the restart, South Korea quickly turned a close match into a blowout.

First, it was Lee Kang-in converting a nifty pass from Bae from a tough angle to double South Korea’s lead to 2-0 in the 51st minute. Three minutes later, Bae picked up his second assist, this time heading down a Hwang In-beom cross to find Oh Hyeon-gyu for the striker’s second goal in as many matches.

Bae and Oh nearly connected for the second time in the 56th minute. After a Kuwait turnover, Bae threaded a pass through multiple defenders to send Oh in alone on Abdulghafoor, but the forward struck the right post with his left-footed shot.

South Korea extended their lead to 4-0 in the 72nd minute, as Lee Jae-sung, who’d subbed in for Jeon three minutes earlier, fired a shot off the body of Hussain Ashkanani.

Son replaced Oh in the 75th minute for his 134th cap. Son is now alone in third on the all-time South Korean list, only two behind his current head coach Hong and former star Cha Bum-kun.