The Korean national football team, led by coach Paulo Bento, is on their first overseas expedition this year after breaking through the cluttered situation of the recurrence of Coronavirus Infectious Disease-19 (Corona 19).
On the morning of the 8th, the Taegeuk Warriors of the Bento are convened at Incheon Airport and traveled to Vienna, Germany via Frankfurt.
The national team will play two away evaluation matches in Vienna, Austria.
First, we will face Mexico at 5 am KST on the 15th at the Vienna Neustadt Stadion, and Qatar at the BSFZ Arena at 10 pm on the 17th.
It is the first time that Taegeuk warriors compete in an evaluation game abroad since they held an evaluation game in Brazil and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on November 19 last year.
In addition, the national team suffered damage from Corona 19 so that the Bento match was the last one in Busan on December 18 last year in the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Championship match.
It is fortunate that Bento was able to check the skills of domestic players without overseas players through a special match with Kim Hak-beom-ho (U-23), who is preparing for the Tokyo Olympics next year, last month.
As the second qualifying round for the 2022 Qatar World Cup in Asia was postponed to next year due to the aftermath of Corona 19, the Korea Football Association prepared for the evaluation match for the November expedition of the Bento. We have a confrontation.
For the first year's expedition, Bento's directors include Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Hwang Ui-jo (Bordeaux), Hwang Hee-chan (Leipzig), Lee Kang-in (Valencia), Hwang In-beom (Rubin Kazan), Kwon Chang-hoon (Freiburg), Lee Jae-seong (Holstein Kiel), and others. Called all the core European resources.
In addition, Bento plans to check the skills of young players by convening U-23 resources such as Won Doo-jae (Ulsan), Jung Tae-wook (Daegu), and Um Won-sang (Gwangju).
However, as Corona 19 has recently been re-proliferating around the world, the situation of Bento, preparing for overseas expeditions, is also not very good.
Kim Jin-su (Al Nasr), the left full-back resource, was removed from the national team due to a positive corona 19 test, and Lee Ju-yong (Jeonbuk) was selected as a substitute player.
Here, Lee Jae-sung and Kwon Chang-hoon, who play for Germany, have to go back to their team after fighting against Mexico on the 15th because of the COVID-19 quarantine period when re-entry to Germany after their visit to Austria.
Jung Woo-young (Alsad) can only play against Mexico.
Eventually, Bento selected Ju Se-jong (Seoul), and there were a total of 27 Taegeuk Warriors in Bento.
The national team will be divided into two groups for the FA Cup final between Jeonbuk and Ulsan on the afternoon of the 8th.
Coach Bento leaves the country with 10 K-League players this morning, and the 2 coaching staff and Ulsan and Jeonbuk players leave as latecomers in the early morning of the 9th.
The Football Association has a policy of minimizing contact with the outside during this expedition for the safety of players.
In Vienna, Austria, only the national team decided to use one floor at all, and the chef of Paju NFC (National Team Training Center) left the country to prevent contact with outsiders at the restaurant.
It is a plan to continue the life of only going to and from the'hotel → training ground → stadium' by refraining from going out personally.
Meanwhile, the U-23 national team, led by coach Kim Hak-beom, also gathered at Incheon International Airport this night and moved to Qatar, Egypt.
Kim Hak-beom-ho, who won the Asian Football Federation (AFC) U-23 Championship in January of this year and secured a ticket for the Tokyo Olympics, will compete in the three-country friendly match in Cairo, Egypt.
Kim Hak-beom-ho will face off against Egypt at the Cairo International Stadium in Cairo, Egypt at 3 a.m. Korea Time on the 13th, and play the second game at 10 p.m. on the 14th at the same stadium as Brazil.
(Photo = Yonhap News, Getty Image Korea)