South Korea vs Uruguay: Korea Have Beaten Uruguay Once in Ten Attempts, Now Want Record?

Son Heung-min needs one goal against Uruguay at Seoul World Cup Stadium to equal Cha Bum-kun's all-time South Korea record of 58 international goals, a mark that has stood for around four decades. The LAFC captain reached 57 with a direct free-kick in a 3-0 win over Ecuador four days ago, and starts up front alongside Oh Hyeon-gyu in interim coach Robert Moreno's 4-4-2, with Lee Kang-in returning on the right wing after being rested. Uruguay arrive under interim coach Diego Forlán, having lost 3-1 to Japan in his first match. South Korea have won only one of ten previous meetings between the sides.

The record, and the man who holds it

Cha Bum-kun scored 58 goals for South Korea. Nobody has matched it since.

Son has 57. One goal, in any of the remaining matches of this series or beyond, draws him level with the player generally regarded as the greatest Korean footballer of the pre-Son era — a man who later coached the national team himself.

Son is already South Korea's most-capped player and is closing in on 150 appearances, so the scoring record is the last of the major national marks still outstanding.

He arrives in form. Against Ecuador on 24 September he curled a direct free-kick past the goalkeeper in the 13th minute of the second half for his 57th, four days after a World Cup campaign in which he had been quiet.

Characteristically, he played the record down. Asked about it after the Ecuador match, he credited Kim Min-jae for telling him to shoot and pushed the conversation towards the team rather than the milestone.

He was more revealing about the World Cup. "Thinking about the World Cup, my heart naturally aches so much, and I think ultimately the only way is to show it again through matches like this," he said, adding that he hoped nobody would get carried away by a single result.

The lineup

Moreno has named a 4-4-2 for the second match running.

In goal: Kim Seung-gyu of FC Tokyo.

Back four: Seol Young-woo of Augsburg, Lee Han-beom of Club Brugge, Kim Min-jae of Bayern Munich and Lee Tae-seok of Austria Wien.

Midfield: Lee Kang-in starts on the right wing. He was left out of the Ecuador squad to manage his condition and watched that win from the stands, so his return is the most significant change.

Up front: Son Heung-min and Oh Hyeon-gyu of Besiktas, the same partnership that started against Ecuador. Oh scored in that match too and is chasing goals in consecutive games of his own.

Moreno has described it as a must-win lineup.

Uruguay are rebuilding too

This is not a settled Uruguay side, which is part of what makes the fixture interesting.

Marcelo Bielsa has gone. Diego Forlán, the former captain and one of the most celebrated players in the country's history, has taken interim charge. His first match ended in a 3-1 defeat to Japan in Rifu, a game Uruguay were level in until late.

The squad still carries serious quality. Darwin Núñez and Maximiliano Araújo are involved, and captain José María Giménez made his 150th international appearance off the bench against Japan, becoming only the ninth Uruguayan to reach that figure.

In goal, with Fernando Muslera no longer involved, Santiago Mele is expected to continue after playing the full 90 minutes against Japan.

This is the second match under Spanish coach Moreno leading the South Korean national football team.
Although it is a friendly match, let's watch the game against Uruguay, a strong team from South America

Korea vs Uruguay. pic.twitter.com/lJlRKaHUur

— New Joseph World (@hnkimma) September 28, 2026

The head-to-head is not encouraging for Korea

Ten meetings. One South Korean win, two draws, seven defeats.

The most recent came three years ago at home, a 1-2 loss.

That record is worth holding alongside Korea's recent form, which is considerably better. They have won five straight warm-up matches against CONMEBOL or CONCACAF opposition since October 2025, and three consecutive friendlies against South American sides since May.

So the pattern says Uruguay, and the form says Korea.

What this match is for

Both teams are in a rebuilding phase after disappointing World Cups, and both have interim coaches auditioning in public.

Moreno, formerly of Spain and most recently Sochi, took over after a World Cup campaign that fell well short of expectations. His brief is to rebuild a side that lost the confidence of a large part of its support, and his debut could hardly have gone better — a 3-0 win in which all three goals came in the second half and he used all eight substitutions.

He was cautious afterwards, saying he would identify areas for improvement and warning against evaluating a team on one decisive win.

This is the second of four matches in the series. South Korea play Venezuela in Ulsan on 2 October and Uzbekistan in Yongin on 6 October.

What to watch

Whether Son gets the 58th. If not tonight, he has two more matches in this window.

Lee Kang-in's fitness and role. He was rested for a reason, and how long Moreno keeps him on the pitch will indicate how confident the staff are.

Kim Min-jae against Darwin Núñez. The best individual contest on the pitch.

Moreno's substitutions. He used all eight against Ecuador. Whether he does so again in a match Korea want to win says something about whether this is still an audition or a team being settled.