ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — After months of messages and missed connections, Juan Carlos Osorio finally got an opportunity to sit down and pick the brain of Guus Hiddink in early March.
As the two lounged at a coffee shop in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, there was something Osorio, who at the time was deep in World Cup preparations with Mexico, simply needed to know: How did Hiddink, a veteran of World Cups with three nations, guide South Korea to its astonishing semifinal finish at the 2002 tournament?
Sixteen years later, memories of that 2002 South Korean squad and its world-beating run have forged an unlikely spiritual tie between two national teams based 8,000 miles apart, South Korea and Mexico, as they prepare to meet on Saturday in a crucial group stage game.