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| Korea's national football team manager Paulo Bento speaks during a press conference at Paju National Football Center in Gyeonggi Province, April 7. / Yonhap |
By John Duerden
There has been some good news and bad news this past week for some of the head coaches of Korea's various national teams. The head of the senior team Paulo Bento will be delighted with the World Cup preparations that the Korea Football Association (KFA) has organized for June. The Taeguk Warriors will face Portugal, Uruguay and Ghana at the World Cup in November and there will be three South American opponents coming to Korea.
The first and most exciting is Brazil. On June 2, the five-time world champions will come to Seoul. It will be a sell-out of 65,000 fans and, as part of the 20th anniversary of the 2002 World Cup, it should be a night to remember. Chile will arrive four days later, and four days after that, it will be Paraguay's turn. There may even be another opponent on June 14, but it has yet to be announced. It is a perfect way to start the build-up and there are sure to be more tests to come in the following months.
Bento's counterpart in charge of the Under-23 team is Hwang Sun-hong and his week has not been quite as successful. The man who scored the first goal at the 2002 World Cup was preparing to take his team to the Asian Games in September. Winning gold at the Games is a big deal for any country, but especially for Korea as it gives the players an exemption from military duty, which is what happened four years ago when Son Heung-min led the team.
The Games were scheduled to take place in the Chinese city of Hangzhou in September, but the Olympic Council of Asia announced on Friday that they have been postponed indefinitely. "The Olympic Council of Asia has announced that the 19th Asian Games, originally scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China, from Sept. 10 to 25, will be postponed," said a statement on the official Games website.
It came as no surprise. China has been battling to contain COVID-19 and had already switched July's East Asian Championships to Japan.
It remains to be seen what will happen with the tournament. When the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were delayed to 2021, the U-23 players were allowed to compete even if they were 24 years old. The same will probably happen this time around, though it remains to be seen if the Games will go ahead next year or whether they will be switched to another country.
Coach Hwang said he is ready for any eventuality. "If the Asian Games are moved to 2023, I will work closely with the KFA to make sure the team is well-prepared for the competition," he said.
There are also questions and serious doubts about the 2023 Asian Cup, the 24-nation soccer tournament that is also due to be hosted in China next summer. It remains to be seen what happens, but a postponement or a switch to possibly South Korea or Japan (or maybe both) seems to be likelier at the moment than the tournament taking place in China.
