When FIFA awarded Monterrey hosting duties for the 2026 World Cup, South Korea’s national team probably didn’t expect to find a home crowd waiting for them in northeastern Mexico. But that’s exactly what happened on June 24 when the Taegeuk Warriors took the pitch at Estadio BBVA to face South Africa in a decisive Group A finale.

The reason is straightforward: Monterrey is home to one of the largest Korean communities in Latin America, and they showed up in force. For a squad that had already logged a grueling match against the Czech Republic in Guadalajara earlier in the group stage, the familiar chants and sea of red felt less like a pleasant surprise and more like a tactical advantage.

A final group game with everything on the line

Group A features Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, and the Czech Republic. Kickoff was set for 7:00 p.m. local time, and the early exchanges reflected the tension. The score sat at 0-0 shortly after the opening whistle, with neither team willing to take unnecessary risks in what amounted to a do-or-die scenario.

For South Korea, the path to this moment ran through Guadalajara, where they faced the Czech Republic in their prior group match. For South Africa, the prospect of facing an opponent with what amounted to home-field advantage in a neutral country added another layer of difficulty.

Monterrey’s Korean community turns the stadium red

The Korean presence in Monterrey is well-established, built over decades of immigration tied to manufacturing, trade, and business ties between South Korea and Mexico’s industrial north. The atmosphere inside Estadio BBVA reflected that history: Korean flags, coordinated chants, and organized supporter energy that turned the venue into something approaching a home fixture for the South Korean players.

What this means for the tournament

The 2026 World Cup’s joint hosting by Canada, Mexico, and the United States created a tournament of enormous geographic scope. That scale means diaspora communities in host cities can meaningfully influence the atmosphere of matches in ways that a single-country tournament rarely produces. Monterrey’s Korean community is a direct example: a team playing thousands of miles from home instead walked into an environment that favored them, with the psychological boost of hearing their own anthem sung back by thousands of supporters.

For South Africa, the challenge was compounded. Not only were they facing a technically proficient opponent with recent experience against European opposition in the Czech Republic, they were doing so in an environment that felt tilted against them.