Korea to Wrap Tour With Latvia Friendly
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
The South Korean national football team will wrap up its two-week tour of South Africa and Spain with a friendly against Latvia Friday night (KST) in Malaga, Spain.
South Korean manager Huh Jung-moo has said he will use a 3-5-2 formation for the match against the Baltic nation.
The 55-year-old manager is tinkering with his formation, going with three backs instead of four on the defensive line, with the Latvians seen as a sparring partner in preparation for its World Cup match against Greece.
The Koreans will meet the Greeks in their first group stage match at the South Africa World Cup finals on June 12.
“I am going to make some tactical changes,” said Huh Monday after a 2-0 win over Finland at the same venue, referring to the change in formation.
Huh has used a 4-4-2 formation almost exclusively since taking the helm of the national team.
“This time, we will go with three defensive backs (against Latvia),’’ Huh said Thursday, explaining that he believes a variety of formations will be required in the finals.
Before travelling to Spain, the skipper used a 3-5-2 against South African pro team Platinum Stars FC last week in Rustenburg, South Africa, but they had trouble adjusting to the new arrangement and played to a scoreless draw.
“Players were not in shape at that time because it had not been long since they arrived at the training venue. More than anything else, they had not adapted to the high altitude,’’ he said.
It was the first time that Huh used a 3-5-2 formation since a World Cup qualifier against Turkmenistan in June 2008.
“Because this is the final match of the training session, I will field 11 players whose conditioning is good,”
Huh is expected to place Lee Jung-soo, Cho Yong-hyung and Kang Min-soo on the defensive line and Lee Woon-jae in goal.
Park Joo-ho and Oh Beom-seok are likely to play as wing backs and Kim Jung-woo, Kim Do-heon and Shin Hyun-min will patrol the midfield.
Lee Dong-gook and Yeom Ki-hun will be positioned at the forefront.
Along with the 3-5-2 formation, Huh has reportedly mulled the possibility of using a 3-4-3 formation, which was used by Guus Hiddink when he led Korea to the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup.
Latvia, sitting at 45th in the FIFA rankings - seven notches higher than Korea - failed to qualify for the World Cup after finishing third behind Switzerland and Greece in Group 2.
It faced Greece twice and fell in both meetings _ 2-0 and 5-2.