Soccer experts evaluated that there have been more positive indicators for the national soccer team led by head coach Hong Myung-bo. However, he pointed out that defensive anxiety is a homework to be solved.
Hong Myung-bo had a 1-1 draw with Palestine in the sixth Group B match of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA North-China World Cup at Amman International Stadium in Jordan on the 19th (Korea time).
Hong Myung-bo, who officially departed through the first round of the World Cup qualifying round against Palestine in September, recorded four wins and two draws (14 points) in six matches, leading Group B and cruising to the World Cup finals for the 11th consecutive time.
It is a bit unfortunate that they drew with Palestine, ranked 100th in the FIFA rankings, in the last A match of this year, but experts say that they have made progress overall.
“Overall, there were more positive things than negative things,” Coupang Play commentator Han Joon-hee said. “By establishing a foothold for generational change and old and new harmony, we contributed to the increase of attack routes,” adding, “Except for the match against Palestine, the effect of player change was also well revealed.”
KBS soccer commentator Kim Dae-gil also said, “Soccer cannot complete all games perfectly. The overall completeness of the six games was not bad,” adding, “I especially liked how the current national team’s strength is strengthened and preparations for the future are mixed well.”
However, there were voices of regret for the Palestinian match, which ended in another draw following the 0-0 draw in the first round.
A commentator said, “Meeting with Palestine twice and finishing with two draws is a clear deduction factor.”
“It’s a shame that we couldn’t respond to the team that analyzed Korea best and prepared it properly,” SportyB commentator Park Chan-ha said. “Palestine blocked Hwang In-beom (key player) and came out with rough soccer, so both performance and results were not good.”
“The good performance in September and October was attributable to the good scoring ability compared to chances while simple offense. Also, most of them were the first goals, so it flowed smoothly afterwards. However, we had a difficult match against Palestine because we could not create such a situation,” he said.
“We started in the same lineup as the match against Kuwait held on Friday, but overall team speed and reaction speed declined significantly. The whole team has changed so much because of its poor condition,” Kim said.
“It’s fine, but the players’ poor condition led to defensive errors and lack of decisiveness. When you play away games in the Middle East, you always fail to adapt,” he said.
Coincidentally, South Korea lost both draws to the underdog Palestinians.
Commentator Kim Dae-gil said, “The grass problem was big during the first game in Seoul in September. I couldn’t send the pass or depress the players at the speed they wanted,” adding, “The stronger the team, the more advantageous it is to control the variables, but we struggled on our own, such as grass in the first game and failure to control our condition in the second game,” adding, “We were hampered by external factors.” 먹튀검증
Now, Hong Myung-bo will continue the third qualifying round of the World Cup with two consecutive home games against Oman on March 20 and Jordan on March 25 next year, about four months later.
After looking back on the six games that have been rushing so far, it is time to make Hong Myung-bo’s color more clear and confirm his advance to the finals.