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Korea Herald
5 days ago
- Sport
- Korea Herald
S. Korea coach looking to test young players ahead of World Cup
With South Korea having locked down their World Cup berth early, head coach Hong Myung-bo said Friday he will use the team's one final qualifying match to test young and unproven players. Hong and the rest of the team received a hero's welcome home at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, on Friday evening, some 12 hours after securing their 2026 World Cup ticket by beating Iraq 2-0 in Basra, southern Iraq, in their latest qualifying match. South Korea will compete in their 11th consecutive World Cup, a streak bettered by only Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy and Spain. South Korea will host Kuwait in Seoul on Tuesday to wrap up Group B play in the third round of the Asian qualifiers. After grabbing their World Cup spot in a hostile environment, the South Korean players will likely be in for a celebratory night in front of home fans in an otherwise inconsequential match. To Hong, though, the match will still be an important occasion as he hopes to get a closer look at some inexperienced players in a national team setting. "We will try our best in that match. And it's an opportunity for us to test young guys who may be able to play at the World Cup next year," Hong told reporters at the airport. "We won't have too many opportunities like this. It's one thing for those guys to watch from the bench and quite another for them to play." Hong said there is no shortage of options on the current iteration of the squad. Of the 26 players, seven players were born in the 2000s and 14 players have fewer than 10 caps. Five of them didn't have any international appearance prior to the Iraq match, with defender Cho Hyun-taek and midfielder Jeon Jin-woo making their debuts in Basra. "Both on defense and offense, we can send out some young players. I will be talking to my staff on how to go about that plan," Hong added. "From this moment on, everything we do will be geared toward preparing for the World Cup." After the Kuwait match, Hong said he will travel to the United States to watch the FIFA Club World Cup, where his former K League 1 team, Ulsan HD FC, will be the lone South Korean representative. Then in July, South Korea will host the East Asian Football Federation E-1 Championship, followed by friendly matches against the US and Mexico in September. The EAFF tournament has usually featured players based in the domestic K League because it's held in the offseason for European clubs. With the World Cup a year away, though, Hong hinted he may cast a wider net than usual when it comes to selecting players. "For the East Asian tournament, I want to take players who have a chance to play, and help the team at the World Cup and be competitive there," Hong said. "After that event, then I will start getting ready for the September friendlies." With young guns licking their chops, Hong hinted that Son Heung-min, who wasn't on the squad list against Iraq, may be held out next week, too. Son missed about a month earlier this year with a foot injury, before captaining Tottenham Hotspur to the UEFA Europa League title on May 21. He did not play in Spurs' final Premier League match of the season that weekend, and Hong said Son is not fully recovered from the foot trouble. "If we wanted to force the issue, he could have played maybe 20 to 30 minutes. But I don't think it's the right thing to do to the player at this moment," Hong said. "His season is over, and he had a tough one with injuries. We will make a decision on him over the next couple of days, but I don't think we're at a point where we have to push him that hard." Hong thanked South Korean fans for their support while watching the match that kicked off at 3:15 a.m. Friday. With Iraq on the South Korean government's travel ban list due to security risks, no fans made the trip to watch the win in person. Hong admitted he had been concerned about safety issues during the team's stay in Iraq and thanked the South Korean Embassy in Iraq for taking good care of the players.
The National
26-03-2025
- Sport
- The National
UAE sack head coach Paulo Bento with World Cup qualification hopes in the balance
The UAE sacked head coach Paulo Bento on Wednesday, the morning after the national team kept their hopes of direct qualification to the 2026 World Cup alive with a last-gasp win over North Korea in Riyadh. Sultan Adil scored deep into stoppage time to secure a 2-1 victory that cut the gap to second-placed Uzbekistan in Group A to four points. The top two from each of three Asian groups qualify automatically for the 2026 finals, but Bento will now not be around to oversee the remainder of the campaign. Teams who finish in third or fourth will go into a complex extra round of qualifying. 'The UAE Football Association has decided to dismiss the head coach of the national team, Portuguese Paulo Bento, along with his coaching staff,' the UAE FA said in a message on social media on Wednesday. Bento led the team to 14 wins, six draws and six losses in his 20 months in charge. The 55-year-old arrived in July 2023 with a solid pedigree in international football when he succeeded Rodolfo Arruabarrena in the UAE hot seat. He had been without a job since stepping down as South Korea's head coach the previous December following their elimination by Brazil from the 2022 World Cup at the last-16 stage. It represented South Korea's first appearance in the tournament's knockout stages in 12 years. Bento had been in charge of the Koreans since August 2018, guiding his team to success in the 2019 East Asian Football Federation E-1 Championship, and then through qualification for a 10th successive World Cup appearance. Bento, who began his managerial career in 2005 with Sporting Lisbon before being appointed Portugal national team manager five years later, replaced Arruabarrena, whose contract through to the 2023 Asian Cup was not extended after the tournament was postponed. Instead, it was Bento who led the team at the tournament, and a penalty shoot-out exit to unfancied Tajikistan in the last 16 raised questions about his future just six months into the job. He survived, with 2026 World Cup qualification being the ultimate aim for the UAE FA. But, after this week's results, the chances of automatic entry into the competition have dwindled, with officials deciding a new man will have a better chance of navigating through the difficult final stages of the qualification process. The team suffered early setbacks under Bento for which they are still suffering now. There were memorable wins over Qatar – home and away – but defeat in Uzbekistan and a drab home draw with North Korea left them playing catch-up, and now looking increasingly likely to be headed for the perilous path through a fourth round of AFC qualifying.
