Hong Myung-bo, debut match against Palestine Beginning of challenge for World Cup qualification
Hong Myung-bo, debut match against Palestine Beginning of challenge for World Cup qualification
Blog Article
Korean soccer begins its challenge to advance to the World Cup finals for the 11th consecutive time.
The Korean national soccer team, led by coach Hong Myung-bo, will play its first match of Group B of the 2026 FIFA World Cup North and Central America Asia 3rd qualifying round against Palestine at Seoul World Cup Stadium at 8:00 PM on the 5th.
The third qualifying round, in which 18 countries are divided into three groups, is effectively the final qualifying round that will determine six of the eight and a half tickets to the main tournament allocated to Asia.
The fourth round, where six countries that failed to advance through the third round will fight for two tickets, is more like a 'replacement match'.
Korea, which has advanced to the World Cup finals every time since the 1986 Mexico tournament, will extend its record of consecutive World Cup appearances to 11 if it advances to the North and Central American tournaments as well. Korea holds the record for the most consecutive appearances in this category among Asians.
Korea will play its first home match against Palestine and its second away match against Oman during the A-match period in September.
Hong Myung-bo, who is setting sail amid controversy over the fairness of the process of appointing a manager, seems to need to achieve two consecutive wins with refreshing performances to appease the fans even a little.
Hong Myung-bo was called up on the 2nd and had his first training session at Goyang Stadium, focusing on K-League players.
With overseas key players such as Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), and Kim Min-jae (Munich) returning to Korea on the 3rd, it seems that all the Taegeuk Warriors will be able to gather together and properly work together only during training on the 4th, the day before the match.
The World Cup qualifiers are also a practical test to create a team that will be 커뮤니티 competitive in the finals.
Coach Hong has to solve several difficult problems, such as the position of Son Heung-min, the national team's best weapon, how much freedom to give Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), a key player in the attack, and who among the saturated second-line attackers should take on the important task of starting.
Palestine is ranked 96th in the FIFA rankings, 73 places below Korea (23rd).
It is the second lowest FIFA ranking team among the six teams in Group B.
Although there is a large gap between Korea and the U.S. in terms of power, the fact that naturalized players who learned soccer in Europe are stationed throughout the front ranks is something to be wary of.
The Middle Eastern football world has been actively recruiting promising players from immigrant families who have played on European stages to join their national teams, and Palestine is also joining this trend.
Current Palestinian national team striker Wesam Abu Ali (Al Ahly) is a player who played for Denmark's under-17, under-18 and under-19 national teams.
He was called up by the Palestine Football Association in March and made his debut for the Palestinian national team in the second round of the World Cup qualifier against Lebanon in June.
In addition, Omar Farai (AIK) and Mustafa Zeidan (Rosenborg), who have played for the Swedish national team at all levels as well as the national team, are expected to play in the match against Korea wearing the Palestine national team uniform.