Hong Myung-bo, head coach of the South Korean national soccer team, emphasized the importance of the match against Palestine.
Korea’s national soccer team led by Hong had its first training session at Goyang Stadium on Tuesday. Korea will play the first match of the FIFA World Cup Asia Qualifier at 8 p.m. on Tuesday against Palestine at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.
On the 26th, Hong announced the list of 26 players to play in this September’s A-match. On the first day of the convocation, 19 players from the K-League, Middle East, J-League and Europe participated, and the rest of the players, including Son Heung-min and Kim Min-jae, will join on the 3rd.
“I am both excited and afraid to lead the national team for the first time in 10 years. I have many thoughts because I have failed. Obviously, my mindset is completely different from before,” Hong said.
When he was a coach of the national team, Hong used strong discipline to dominate the team. There were also rules requiring people to wear suits when convening the national team. Hong said, “The situation has changed from the past.”
“I don’t like to show them. Back then, I wanted them to look back on how they felt when they were wearing suits and looking in the mirror. Now, they are flying from overseas, and it is nonsense to ask me to wear a suit. I seek a comfortable way to keep the good in freedom,” Hong said.
After the replacement of Jurgen Klinsmann, two temporary coaches have finally been appointed, but criticism against Hong continues.
Along with the “controversy over preferential treatment” that the interview was not conducted during the director’s appointment process, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has hardly been able to stabilize as it conducts an audit related to the process of appointing Hong.
The Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee of the National Assembly will vote on the adoption of witnesses related to the Korea Football Association at a general meeting on Tuesday, and will summon them for questioning on pending issues on Monday. Chung Mong-kyu, president of the Korea Football Association, Hong and Lee Im-saeng, general director of the Korea Technology Headquarters, were included in the list of testifiers. Naturally, attention will be paid to the match against Palestine, the first match since Hong took the helm of the national team. 먹튀검증
However, Hong said, “The match is more important to the Republic of Korea than to me. As we are preparing for the third qualifying round for the World Cup, it is up to whether we can advance to the finals or not,” explaining the meaning of the first match as a team rather than personal circumstances.