“We’ll see the players’ determination and enthusiasm.”
South Korea national soccer team head coach Jürgen Klinsmann has emphasized his players’ enthusiasm ahead of what is effectively his first A-match.
“I want the players to prove to themselves on the field how much they want to go to Qatar together,” Klinsmann said before the team’s first training session at Gudeok Stadium in Busan on Wednesday afternoon, explaining the requirements for the best 11. “We will be watching their will and passion,” he said, adding, “I want them to show that.”
South Korea will play Peru at the Busan Asiad Stadium on Sept. 16 and El Salvador at the Daejeon World Cup Stadium on Sept. 20. It will be Klinsmann’s third or fourth evaluation game since taking over.
An official match has already been played. In March, Korea played Colombia (2-2 draw) and Uruguay (1-2 loss) in South Korea. The first two games were played with players from the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The games were played shortly after he took over, so he didn’t have much time to assess the players’ performance.
About three months have passed since then, during which I’ve observed enough K League players in Korea and traveled around Europe to interact with overseas players. Based on this, they announced the 23-player roster on the 5th.
“In fact, the June A-match period is quite difficult for overseas players,” Klinsmann said. “They have to take a vacation at the end of the season, but there is a physical burden due to the long season,” he explained. “On the other hand, the K League players joined the team while continuing to play, so it will be easier for them in terms of performance and stamina,” he added.
What he’s looking for is passion and urgency. It’s all about how badly they want to qualify for the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup in Qatar next year.
“How much they want to go to Qatar, how much they want to win in Qatar, how much passion, determination and commitment they show, that’s what we’ll be looking at in these two games,” Klinsmann said. 안전놀이터
Kwon Kyung-won (Gamba Osaka), who was initially scheduled to join the team, withdrew due to injury. Kwon will be replaced by Jung Seung-hyun (Ulsan Hyundai) and Park Kyu-hyun (Dynamo Dresden). Moon Sun-min (Jeonbuk Hyundai) was also added to the roster, bringing the total number of players to 24.
Son Jun-ho (Shandong Taishan), who was arrested and detained by Chinese police on March 12 on suspicion of bribery, is effectively unavailable, but remains on the roster. Earlier, Klinsmann said he included him in the roster to give him a boost. This brings the final roster to 25 players.