Coach Hong Myung-bo is back. Team A has taken the helm for the first time in 10 years, and the first game will begin now.
The South Korean national soccer team A will play the first Group B match against Palestine at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 5th in the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 North-China World Cup. South Korea is aiming to advance to the World Cup finals for the 11th consecutive time, starting with the 1986 Mexico tournament.
This is a new starting point. After a long hiatus, Korea has appointed a new head coach. It’s the legendary Hong. Hong has returned to the A-team for the first time in 10 years since 2014. He will set sail in earnest starting with a game against Palestine.
“The preliminary round will begin. We exercised lightly as a whole group. Players must feel tired, but no one is injured. If we take another day of rest and trainings, we can expect to see better performance,” Hong said at an official press conference held on Sunday. The players warmed up lightly in bright form during the 15-minute open training session.
Hong has selected the final 26 players through field trips to Europe and field trips to the K-League. The team convened all of the best players including Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain). However, they did not join the team until Thursday due to schedule of their team’s game. They will start the game immediately after training for only one day.
Furthermore, the Palestinians are a very unfamiliar team. They had never had a match with the A team. They had a match against each other only once in the entire Korean men’s and women’s teams. When it comes to FIFA rankings, Korea has the upper hand. Korea ranks 23rd and Palestine 96th. However, players who naturalized as a Palestinian national citizen are subject to alert. Striker Wessam Abu Ali played for the Danish national team at the age of 17, 18 and 19. He made his debut for the Palestinian national team at the second qualifying match for the World Cup against Lebanon in June at the invitation of the Palestinian Football Association in March. Omar Farai (AIK) and Mustafa Jaidan (Rosenburg), who also played for the Swedish national team, are expected to change into the Palestinian national team uniform and play in the match against Korea.
Hong said, “The Palestinian striker’s movement is very threatening. I think his teamwork is better than the team we think of. Unlike before, he plays in offense, but there are also loopholes that come from that. Our players have sufficient experience and ability. We plan to use it as an opportunity to score.”
Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in are expected to be at the forefront of the attack. Coach Hong said, “We have to be creative in attack and discipline in defense. Lee Kang-in’s attack ability is good, and Son Heung-min on the other side and striker and midfielder in the middle are also capable. I think we have a lot of good scenes in the last second qualifying round. Now we have a little more difficult match. I think it will be important how efficiently we play to improve the completeness.” Lee Kang-in led the attack by scoring four goals and three assists in the second qualifying round.
“It’s my first match. I think many people have high expectations,” Hong said. Of course, he hopes to score more points and will train in that way. Basically, his focus is on winning. The most important thing is to win in the first match.” 메이저놀이터
Meanwhile, coach Markram Daboub said, “We will play against Korea, the best team in Asia. Korea has advanced to the World Cup for 10 consecutive times. As far as I know, there are many outstanding players. We have great dreams and great ambitions to advance to the World Cup. As it is our first time to the third Asian qualifying round, we will try to achieve our dream. We will get good results against Korea and achieve our dream of advancing to the World Cup.”