Only clean thoughts ahead of the crucial Asian Cup
For the first time in a while, we’ll get to hear from the national team’s head coach about the A-match roster.
The Korea Football Association will announce its 26-man roster for the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup at CGV Yongsan I-Park Mall at 11 a.m. on Aug. 28. Head coach Jürgen Klinsmann will be present at the event, which will also feature three national team players, the KFA said. In addition to the roster announcement, there will be a press conference and an autograph signing session for fans.
The desire to win the Asian Cup is huge. It’s been a whopping 64 years since they won the tournament in 1960. In 2015, they reached the final but finished as runners-up, losing to Australia. In the last edition of the tournament, they were coached by Paulo Bento and were eliminated in the quarterfinals. It’s a shame that South Korea hasn’t won the Asian Cup in over 60 years, as they’ve been a consistent performer at the FIFA World Cup and have produced a number of stars.
With Klinsmann at the helm, South Korea will look to win the Asian Cup. The roster for the domestic call-up has already been announced. Song Jo Gyu-sung (Mitwillan), Lee Jae-sung (Mainz), Hwang In-beom (FK Tsubena Zvezda), Jung Woo-young (VfB Stuttgart), Lee Sun-min (Gwangju FC), Moon Sun-min and Park Jin-seop (Jeonbuk Hyundai), Kim Young-kwon, Jung Seung-hyun, Kim Tae-hwan, Seol Young-woo (Ulsan HD), Kim Jin-soo (Jeonbuk Hyundai), Lee Ki-je (Suwon Samsung) and Kim Joo-sung (FC Seoul), and goalkeepers Cho Hyun-woo (Ulsan HD) and Song Bum-geun (Shonan Belmaré).
The domestic training camp will take place from December 16 to 31 and will consist of indoor training only, not on grass. “With many of our players coming off the season and needing to start preparing for the tournament in a very tired state, the aim of the training is to ensure that they are properly rested and trained so that they can travel to Qatar in the best possible condition,” explained national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann. The training will be led by national physical coaches Werner Reutard and Lee Jae-hong, and will focus on assessing the players’ fitness levels and fatigue from the recent season through weight training and conditioning.
The final list will be released on the 28th. A roster announcement press conference would be eye-catching. In the past, Klinsmann has not held a roster announcement press conference, citing the fact that the roster could change and that he would be interviewed again after the call-up. The press conference was only attended by a handful of reporters. It’s hard to get specifics on why this player didn’t make the roster and why that player did.
We have a policy of holding a roster announcement press conference before big tournaments, and this time we kept it. The press conference after the final roster is announced will give us a better idea of Klinsmann’s thoughts. Klinsmann has called the Asian Cup a “benchmark,” so it’s safe to assume that he’ll be putting a lot of thought into his roster.