With the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA North-China World Cup turning around, Hong Myung-bo’s opponents will conduct an interim inspection through the “Gulf Cup.”
The 26th Gulf Cup, organized by the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation (AGCFF), will kick off in Kuwait City, Kuwait on the 22nd (Korea Standard Time).
Founded in 1970, the Gulf Cup is a national competition involving eight AGCFF members, and the 26th edition of the tournament will be held in Kuwait.
Group A included Kuwait, the host country and the most winning team (10 times), Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar, while Group B included “defending champion” Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen.
After facing each other once in a group, the top two teams in each group advance to the tournament and compete for the championship.
The Gulf Cup has nothing to do with South Korea, but it is worth paying attention to “several teams” in this tournament. Three teams, led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, will participate in the tournament, including South Korea and Iraq, Kuwait, and Oman, which competed in Group B of the third Asian qualifying round for the North-China World Cup.
Jordan and Palestine, the ‘Middle East teams’ included in Group B, are not AGCFF members and are therefore not eligible to participate in the tournament.
South Korea, which is ranked first in Group B (4 wins, 2 draws, 14 points), will have to face Oman, Iraq and Kuwait once in the remaining four games.
In the third qualifying round, which is based on the concept of the final qualifying round, the team that ranks second in the group wins a ticket to directly advance to the finals. Korea, which is five points ahead of Jordan (nine points), is in an advantageous position to advance to the World Cup finals for the 11th consecutive time, but it is not optimistic yet.
The third qualifying round is scheduled to resume in March next year, and this Gulf Cup is a good opportunity to analyze the current power of the rival team.
Kuwait, Iraq, and Oman have the best power, including all the resources available in the Gulf Cup.
Kuwait, led by head coach Juan Antonio Fitch, selected key players such as Mohammad Daham, who scored a goal against Korea, and Youssef Nasser, who scored 52 goals in the A match.
The Iraqi team led by Jesus Casas also deployed its star striker Aymen Hussein as well as other European players Ali Jasim, Ahmed Yasin and Zidane Iqbal. Rashid Jaber’s arrogance consists of players from his own league.
The UAE, which is under the leadership of Paulo Bento, who led South Korea to the round of 16 at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, is also one of the teams of interest. 메이저사이트
The UAE had never won the title after winning the title twice in 2007 and 2013, and lost face by failing to win the group league in both of the last two tournaments. At this Gulf Cup, Bento is expected to win the title again.
Bento also suffered trial and error in charge of the UAE national team, but he gained momentum by defeating Kyrgyzstan (3-0) and Qatar (5-0) in the third qualifying round of the North-China World Cup last month.
“The UAE, led by Bento, is full of confidence as it rebounded from the third qualifying round for the World Cup. It has a strong squad including Kaio Kanedu, Bruno, Fabio Lima, and Yaya al-Gasani,” the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said in high praise.