South Korea’s quest to quench a 64-year title drought in Asia’s premier men’s soccer tournament begins on Monday against Bahrain. Bahrain is a team that has won 11 of the 16 times they have faced each other.
South Korea, which has star players based in Europe, will play their first match in Group E of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup at Al Rayyan’s Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, just west of Doha.
South Korea won the first two AFC men’s premier tournaments in 1956 and 1960, but has not won the title since then. They have finished runner-up four times in the past 60 years, most recently winning in Australia in 2015.
This year’s team is considered one of the most talented, with key players all peaking at the right time, and many observers feel this is the year the drought will finally end.
South Korea, coached by Jurgen Klinsmann, are the top team in Group E at 23rd place in the current FIFA rankings, while Bahrain are ranked 86th.
In theory, South Korea should have little difficulty breaking through Bahrain. The question is not whether Korea will win, but by how many points they will beat Bahrain.
Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min also wears the national team armband. He scored his 12th goal of the season for Spurs on New Year’s Eve in his last Premier League game before joining the national team. Son was tied for third in the Golden Boot race when he briefly left the club.
Fellow national team member Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-chan finished in sixth place with a career-high 10 goals.
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) midfielder Lee Kang-in last participated in the South Korean training camp in Abu Dhabi and scored the opening goal in PSG’s 2-0 victory over Toulouse in the French Super Cup final on January 3rd. After deciding, I participated. .
While the talented trio will lead the attack, Bayern Munich center back Kim Min-jae will help close down the defensive movement. In his first season in the Bundesliga, Kim showed his usual strong side at the tail end of the German giants. Last spring, Kim helped Napoli win Italy’s Serie A for the first time in 33 years.
Other national team mainstays plying their trade in Europe include Crvena Zvezda midfielder Hwang In-beom, Mainz 05 midfielder Lee Jae-sung and FC Midtjylland forward Cho Gu-sung. A pair of 24-year-olds, VfB Stuttgart forward Jung Woo-young and KAA Gent midfielder Hong Hyun-seok, have also been active recently.
On the domestic side, Ulsan HD FC defender Kim Young-kwon, the 2023 K League 1 Player of the Year, and Ulsan teammate Jeong Seung-hyun will take turns next to Kim Min-jae in the center of the final line. there is a possibility. 4th line.
South Korea has a total of 11 wins, 4 draws, and 1 loss against Bahrain, but the last time they faced each other was five years ago in the Round of 16 of the 2019 Asian Cup. It goes back a long time, and many Korean athletes were not able to participate. Teams for this year’s tournament.
However, both of the scorers in South Korea’s 2-1 win are back this time: the Wolverhampton fans and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors’ Kim Jin-soo. (Union)