Oh! What a match: young guns shine again in S. Korea’s World Cup qualifying win Yoo Jee-ho, 유지호 Yoo Jee-ho

With the country’s only two Premier Leaguers injured for a key World Cup qualification match Tuesday night, South Korea’s young offensive stars grabbed the opportunity to play additional minutes and ran with it.

South Korea got past Iraq 3-2 in their Group B match in the third round of the Asian World Cup qualifying tournament at Yongin Mireu Stadium in Yongin, about 40 kilometers south of Seoul. In front of nearly 35,200 fans, Oh Se-hun, 25, opened the scoring with his first international goal, assisted by the 21-year-old winger Bae Jun-ho.

Oh’s replacement in the second half, Oh Hyeon-gyu, scored for his second straight match to give South Korea a 2-1 lead. The 23-year-old had also scored as a sub against Jordan last week.

“We had such a great leadup to this match that we all felt quite confident,” Oh Hyeon-gyu said afterward. “No matter what head coach Hong Myung-bo asks me to do, I will be ready to do my best. He always makes me feel confident, and he is very clear about how he wants to use me. I think it helped me score the goal tonight.”

On the youthful uprising on the national team, Oh said: “It doesn’t matter how old you are when you’re representing the country. The national team is only for the best players of the country, and I think we all play with that sense of responsibility.”

It was Lee Jae-sung, practically ancient at 32, who set up Oh Hyeon-gyu’s goal and later scored one for himself with a diving header. But he gladly ceded the spotlight to his younger teammates in this match.

“As a veteran, I am happy to have contributed to the win tonight,” Lee said. “And I think it means a great deal to the national team that we’ve seen some young guys step up. I think we have a bright future ahead of us. As an older guy, I will try to help them keep growing.”

Lee Kang-in, 23, had been the youngest player on previous iterations of the national team, but at least he has more contemporaries now, with Bae being one of two players younger than Lee on this squad.

He has far more experience than anyone in his age group with 33 caps, which gives him a unique perspective on those young guns’ development.

“Having trained with them and played with them, I could tell that they are all very talented,” Lee said. “I hope they will all become players that can help the team, and I will keep trying my best as well.”

Bae made his presence felt on the left wing for the second straight match, with the spot vacated first by injury to captain Son Heung-min and then to his two replacements, Hwang Hee-chan and Eom Ji-sung.

Losing both Son and Hwang, attackers for Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers, respectively, would have been a big blow to South Korea, if not for Bae’s emergence in these two matches.

Bae turned heads last season with Stoke City, earning the top player honor for the second-division club. Against Jordan and Iraq, Bae demonstrated his playmaking chops and ability to break through a wall of defenders on the left side.

Bae said playing against a tough foe such as Iraq was “an important learning experience” for him.

“Maybe people thought I looked a bit nervous early on tonight, and hopefully, I can get better in that regard,” Bae said. “I think I could have been a bit more aggressive with the ball at my feet on certain occasions. Young players like myself can show off the kind of energy that no one else can, and my job is to continue to show that side.”