National football team seeks answers in Europe

Son Heung-min celebrates after scoring a goal against Thailand in Group C play during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers at Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, March 26, 2024. Yonhap

The 2026 K League season has just started to hit its stride, and FC Seoul is top of the league after winning its first four games, but now attention turns to other matters: an international break.

Not the Women’s Asian Cup. South Korea reached the semifinal last week but was beaten by Japan, the eventual champion. There is no shame in that, and in fact, there were reasons to be cheerful about what happened in Australia. The continental title remains elusive — the team got to the final in 2022 — but on the way to the last four, Korea looked pretty good. It’s never fun to lose a semifinal, but there were positive signs, not least that the team qualified for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

But the focus is now on the men’s World Cup this summer, where the Taegeuk Warriors are in a group with co-host Mexico, South Africa and a European team that will qualify through the playoffs at the end of this month. On paper, it is an open group, and Korea has a real chance of getting through to the knockout rounds, especially as 32 of the 48 teams competing in North America will advance.

There is still plenty of work to do before that, in the final stage of preparation. On Saturday, South Korea, ranked 22nd in the world, takes on Ivory Coast, 15 places lower. This friendly match will be held in Milton Keynes, around 80 kilometers north of London. Three days later, the team will head to Vienna to take on Austria, ranked 24th. Facing two other World Cup-bound teams is obviously great preparation.

Most teams are now fine-tuning, trying out one or two new faces, but Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo is still unsure of his favored formation. He has talked of using a three-man or a four-man defense, but there is not much time to nail down the details. These are the last games before the final roster is named in May, and it is concerning that the coach is still unsure of such a fundamental question with less than three months to go.

Hopefully there are some answers found in Europe. The injury to key midfielder Hwang In-beom is a problem, as the Netherlands-based star is an important and underrated talent who sets the team’s tempo. It looks as if Jens Castrop, the German-born addition to the team who has been hailed as the team’s defensive midfielder for potentially the next 10 years, is actually going to play in defense.

At least the team’s big names such as Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in and Kim Min-jae seem to be fit and in decent form for their clubs. Much depends on this trio this summer. There is unlikely to be any surprise names that enter the roster at this late stage, so it is important that the big stars stay in shape and in form.