Son Heung-min and South Korea head to North America with a sense of foreboding threatening to envelop them, for what will surely be their talisman's last World Cup.
The 33-year-old skipper has faced growing questions about his faltering form and international future while coach Hong Myung-bo is deeply unpopular with fans.
Pre-World Cup friendlies only added to the sense of disgruntlement, thrashed 4-0 by the Ivory Coast and beaten 1-0 by Austria.
Afterwards, Hong was moved to defend Son, who left Premier League side Tottenham last year for Los Angeles FC in the MLS, with his best days seemingly behind him.
"Son Heung-min is the heart of our team and I have never once doubted that," Hong told reporters.
South Korea are in Group A alongside the Czech Republic, South Africa and co-hosts Mexico.
They face the Czechs in Guadalajara on the opening day of the tournament on June 11.
If South Korea are to get out of the group they will need the attacker Son to start firing again.
He has scored 54 goals in 143 games for his country and been their inspiration for more than 15 years. But his powers are clearly on the wane and he has hardly lit up the MLS since Spurs let him go in August last year.
Following the friendly defeat to Austria in England in March, during which Son fluffed his lines, he defiantly denied that he had lost his goalscoring touch.
"I don't think I've suffered any dip in my performance," the Yonhap News agency quoted him as saying.
"When the time comes for me to leave the national team, then I will do it on my own.
"It's disappointing that people talk about decline whenever I hit a dry spell."
Son will be desperate to make up for what was a miserable 2022 Qatar World Cup for him.
He was a shadow of himself, forced to wear a mask to protect a fractured eye socket and failing to score as South Korea were bundled out in the last 16 with a 4-1 hammering by Brazil.
COACH JEERED
South Korea fans saw their side comfortably reach the World Cup unbeaten in qualifying, but they have low expectations of what the team will do in North America.
"Fans' collective confidence level seems to be at an all-time low," Yonhap said this month.
The country's best World Cup performance remains reaching the semifinals in 2002 when they co-hosted. Since then, they have never gone beyond the last 16.
During qualifying, supporters consistently jeered the 57-year-old coach Hong, who led South Korea to a meek group-stage exit at the 2014 World Cup, when they failed to win a game.
Son has pleaded with supporters to get behind the team and the coach.
Fans also have the knives out for the Korea Football Association over the process that saw Hong reappointed two years ago.
Before him were two interim managers and there was the disastrous appointment of Jurgen Klinsmann, who was sacked after just 12 turbulent months.
After the demoralising losses to the Ivory Coast and Austria, Hong defended his use of three centre-backs and wingbacks, saying he wanted his side to be tactically flexible.
"Our players have been playing in the back-four formation for a long time," he said.
"But we've all seen that we can't afford to take just one set of tactics to the World Cup."
South Korea's squad is mostly based abroad and takes in an array of overseas leagues in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Kim Min-jae has been a mainstay in central defence for his country, and at 29, the Bayern Munich man dubbed "Monster" should be at his peak.
Lee Kang-in is another who has proven pedigree in top European football, first with Valencia and Mallorca and now with Paris Saint-Germain.
The versatile attacker has been used sparingly by PSG and is linked with a move away this summer.
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