Korean players acknowledge their supporters after losing to Austria 1-0 in a friendly football match at Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna, March 31. Yonhap
With the countdown to the FIFA World Cup having reached 30 days in Korea, fans will be waiting to see if their men's national football team will turn things around in time for the big tournament.
Since the controversial and largely unpopular hiring of Hong Myung-bo as head coach in the summer of 2024, fans have been expressing their displeasure toward the Taegeuk Warriors. When they packed stadiums as they normally do for the men's international matches, they booed Hong mercilessly and held up signs calling for the resignation of Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu.
And then there were matches when fans simply didn't show up. On Oct. 14 last year, only 22,206 fans attended a friendly match against Paraguay at the 66,000-seat Seoul World Cup Stadium – the lowest number for a men's international match in 10 years. When Korea hosted Ghana on Nov. 18 at the same Seoul venue, 33,256 fans were on hand.
Korea won both of those matches, sandwiching another victory over Bolivia on Nov. 14 in the central city of Daejeon before about 33,000 supporters, but didn't look very convincing in any of them. And then Korea opened their World Cup year with two consecutive losses in away friendly matches — a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Ivory Coast on March 28 and a 1-0 loss to Austria three days later.
Fans' collective confidence level seems to be at an all-time low. However, world No. 25 Korea will play in what many pundits say is one of the softer groups at the World Cup, as they ended up with 15th-ranked Mexico, 41st-ranked Czechia and 60th-ranked South Africa in Group A.
Korea will open the proceedings against Czechia at 8 p.m. on June 11 in Guadalajara (11 a.m. on June 12 in Korea), followed by Mexico at 7 p.m. on June 18 in Guadalajara (10 a.m. on June 19 in Korea), and then South Africa at 7 p.m. on June 24 in Monterrey (10 a.m. on June 25 in Korea).
With all three matches in Mexico and two in the same city, Korea will have much less travel burden than many others in the first World Cup to be co-hosted by three countries — Mexico, Canada and the United States.
This will also be the largest World Cup, with 48 nations in action, up from the previous 32. The knockout stage will begin with a round of 32, featuring the top two teams from each of the 12 groups and eight-best teams among No. 3 seeds.
These factors have led experts to believe Korea should have little trouble making it out of the group phase. Just how far they can go once they get there, though, is anyone's guess.
Source: Korea Times News
