Coach for men's Asian Games football team eyes gold despite recent struggles
Korea's under-23 national team head coach Lee Min-sung speaks to reporters at Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Tuesday. Yonhap
The head coach of the Korean men's national football team at the upcoming Asian Games on Tuesday vowed to bring home the country's fourth consecutive gold medal, despite the squad's recent struggles.
Head coach Lee Min-sung will lead Korea 's under-23 national team to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games kicking off later this month. Korea will try to win their fourth straight title, with four members of the FIFA World Cup team from this summer having joined Lee's squad.
"It has not been all smooth sailing up to this point, but I am sure that experience will help us in the long run," Lee told reporters before the start of the team's training camp at Korea Football Park in Cheonan, some 90 kilometers south of Seoul. "We will try to address our weaknesses and win the gold medal."
Expectations for the current under-23 generation are rather low. Korea did not exactly dominate the Asian Football Confederation U-23 Asian Cup in January, widely regarded as an important prelude to the Asian Games. They squeezed past Iran, Lebanon and Uzbekistan before losing to Japan, made up mostly of under-21 players, 1-0 in the semifinals.
Lee said the string of poor showings at the Asian Cup was merely a part of the journey.
"We have not yet played a game with our full squad, with all the players available," he said. "I believe the players who have gone through that period will have learned valuable lessons."
Korea will face Qatar and Saudi Arabia in the group stage of the Asian Games. With 15 teams drawn into three groups of four and one group of three, Korea ended up in Group D with only two other opponents.
The top two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the quarterfinals, and teams in Group D will play one fewer match than those in the three other groups.
"We just have to play our own game, and not worry so much about our opponents," Lee said. "We have prepared ourselves against both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and we will try to play well right from the start."
For Tuesday's training session, 14 of Lee's 23 players, all of them based in the domestic K League, were available.
Those based in Europe, including Bae Jun-ho of Stoke City and Kim Ji-soo of Brentford, will join the national team in Japan.