World Cup-bound players head to Salt Lake City for training camp

Players and coaches of the South Korean World Cup squad pose for photos at Incheon International Airport, Monday, before departing for Salt Lake City, Utah, for training camp. Yonhap

Led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, a dozen South Korean players and reserves departed for Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah on Monday for their pre-World Cup training camp.

Hong unveiled his 26-man squad for the June 11-July 19 World Cup on Saturday. From that list, six players selected from the domestic K League, and three players from the English Football League (EFL) Championship whose seasons ended earlier this month, traveled for Salt Lake City.

The six K Leaguers are: Lee Dong-gyeong and Jo Hyeon-woo of Ulsan HD FC, Kim Jin-gyu and Song Bum-keun of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Kim Moon-hwan of Daejeon Hana Citizen FC and Lee Gi-hyuk of Gangwon FC.

The three EFL Championship players are: Bae Jun-ho of Stoke City, Eom Ji-sung of Swansea City and Paik Seung-ho of Birmingham City.

These nine players were joined by three reserves selected by Hong as "training partners": Kang Sang-yoon and Cho Wi-je of Jeonbuk and Yoon Ki-wook of FC Seoul.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) chose Salt Lake City, which sits 1,300 meters above sea level, as the site of training camp so that South Korean players can get acclimated to playing in another high city, Guadalajara in Mexico, where they will play two of their three Group A matches.

Players of the South Korean World Cup team prepare to depart Incheon International Airport for Salt Lake City, Utah, for training camp, Monday. Yonhap

The national team will work out at facilities for the Major League Soccer (MLS) club Real Salt Lake and the University of Utah.

The rest of the team, most of whom are based in Europe, will travel to Utah next week. Captain Son Heung-min, who plays for Los Angeles Football Club, will play one more match for his MLS club on Sunday in Los Angeles before making a short trip to Salt Lake City.

While in Utah, world No. 25 South Korea will play two tuneup matches: against 102nd-ranked Trinidad and Tobago at 7 p.m. on May 30 and against 100th-ranked El Salvador at 7 p.m. on June 3.

Both matches will be played at BYU South Field in Provo, Utah, on the campus of Brigham Young University. The kickoff in South Korean time will be 10 a.m. May 31 for the first match and 10 a.m. June 4 for the second game.

South Korea will travel to Guadalajara on June 5 to set up their World Cup base camp.

They will open the tournament against Czechia at 8 p.m. June 11 in Guadalajara (11 a.m. June 12 in South Korea), followed by Mexico at 7 p.m. June 18 in Guadalajara (10 a.m. June 19 in South Korea), and then South Africa at 7 p.m. June 24 in Monterrey (10 a.m. June 25 in South Korea).

When announcing his squad, Hong said the primary objective was to qualify for the knockout stage in the "best possible position."

The tournament has expanded from 32 nations to 48 nations, and the knockout phase will begin with the round of 32. The top two teams from each of the 12 groups and the eight best third-place teams will qualify. The group winners are guaranteed to avoid other group winners in the round of 32, while those who sneak in as third-ranked teams must get past a group winner in their first knockout matches.

Also, the Group A winner will stay in Mexico for the round of 32, where as the runner-up must travel to Los Angeles and the third-place team out of Group A will either be in Seattle or Boston if they qualify for the knockouts.

South Korea have been to the knockouts twice at an away World Cup, going as far as the round of 16 in 2010 in South Africa and in 2022 in Qatar.