Hwang In-Beom Joins Elite South Korean Company in Win
The chip trickled over Matej Kovar’s outstretched hand and into the far corner with barely enough pace to cross the line. Hwang In-Beom did not celebrate like a man who had just scored a World Cup goal. He celebrated like a man who knew there was more work left in the legs, because there was. Thirteen minutes later he would set up the winner too, becoming only the third South Korean player in history to register a goal and an assist in the same World Cup match.
South Korea beat Czechia 2-1 at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara on June 12, 2026, in their second Group A match at the World Cup. Hwang equalized in the 67th minute and assisted Oh Hyeon-Gyu’s winner in the 80th, after Ladislav Krejci had given Czechia an early second-half lead.
Hwang In-Beom equalized for South Korea in the 67th minute, turning home a Lee Kang-In through ball after a touch that left Robin Hranac sliding on the turf. He set up Oh’s winner in the 80th. Czechia had led since the 59th minute through Krejci’s header.
The goal itself deserved more credit than the modest finish suggested. Lee Kang-In threaded a ball through the lines from deep midfield, and Hwang had to do something difficult with it immediately. He let it run across his body, drew Kovar off his line, then cut back onto his right foot while Hranac lunged in behind him with nothing to show for it. The chip that followed barely had enough on it to beat the goalkeeper, and it did not need to.
For a player whose career has been built more on engine than end product, this was something different.
He covers ground for South Korea that few midfielders in this tournament will match, the kind of running that rarely shows up on a highlight reel. Tonight it did. After the equalizer, Hwang kept pushing forward rather than sitting back on the moment, and that decision produced the winner. He carried the ball down the flank, held off pressure, and delivered a centring pass that Oh, on for just eleven minutes, turned home first time.
Czechia had chances to punish that aggression. Michal Sadilek forced a brilliant save from Kim Seung-Gyu deep into stoppage time, the kind of save that keeps managers calm and midfielders honest. Hwang was off the field by then, substituted in the 84th minute to scattered applause that felt more like gratitude than ceremony.