Football team delayed by bus mix-up at Asian Games
Korean men's national football team members salute the Korean flag before their first Pool D match against Qatar in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Tuesday. Yonhap
The Korean men's national football team was delayed in getting to a recovery training session Wednesday after organizers of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games failed to provide an official bus, a Korean team official said.
The team, which beat Qatar 4-0 in their first Pool D match the previous day, was scheduled to hold a post-match recovery session at a field in Handa, some 40 kilometers south of Nagoya, Japan, at 10:30 a.m.
However, the team could not head to the training venue because the organizing committee had failed to send a designated vehicle to the team hotel.
After several minutes of searching for an alternative bus, the team arrived at the venue at 10:50 a.m.
This was not the first transportation mishap for the Korean football team here.
On Tuesday, the team arrived at the stadium for its match against Qatar at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Rugby Field in Nagoya about 30 minutes later than scheduled after the driver of the team bus got lost on the way.
The Qatari team also experienced a similar transportation problem.
On Monday, head coach Lee Min-sung was a few minutes late for his pretournament press conference at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Rugby Field after he was not provided with a designated vehicle.
"Minor issues regarding vehicle scheduling and operations have been continuously arising during every training session and official event throughout the tournament," an official from the Korea Football Association (KFA) said.
"This is a situation that all teams currently participating in the tournament are facing, not just us."
The 20th Asian Games, the first quadrennial continental multisport event to be held in Japan in 32 years, will officially open Saturday, with some sports, such as football and basketball, already under way.