Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo mentioned Thursday he’s relying on robust performances from his midfielders in an upcoming pleasant match in opposition to Bolivia, with some key gamers lacking from the group with accidents.
Korea, world No. 22, will host 76th-ranked Bolivia at Daejeon World Cup Stadium within the central metropolis of Daejeon at 8 p.m. Friday, the primary of two friendlies scheduled for the Taegeuk Warriors this month. They may subsequent play Ghana in Seoul on Tuesday.
Within the days main as much as this match window, three Korean midfielders suffered accidents that pressured them off the nationwide crew. First, it was Hwang In-beom of Feyenoord happening with a thigh harm. Paik Seung-ho of Birmingham Metropolis, a powerful candidate to interchange Hwang as defensive midfielder within the beginning lineup, sustained a shoulder harm. Lee Dong-gyeong, attacking midfielder for Ulsan HD FC, suffered a damaged rib over the weekend.
At his prematch press convention in Daejeon, Hong mentioned he had sat down with midfielders this week to go over a few of the finer factors of technique.
“We have had a few conferences simply with our midfielders, in order that we may give them extra data on their positioning and set performs,” Hong mentioned. “It is arduous to foretell how the match will play out tomorrow however I anticipate them to play effectively. These gamers aren’t fully new to the nationwide crew, and they also have a great understanding of our ways.”
Hong mentioned Bolivia, who surprised the closely favored Brazil 1-0 of their regional World Cup qualifying match in September, will give Korea a stern check.
“They might be lacking some gamers however I believe they nonetheless have numerous aggressive gamers,” Hong mentioned. “I believe their new guys will come out and be actually aggressive, so we now have to maintain that in thoughts as we put together for this match. Hopefully, the match will give us an opportunity to see how effectively we are able to execute our plans.”
Hong mentioned his seek for the optimum lineup mixture will proceed this month.
“Clearly, match outcomes are actually essential,” he mentioned. “On the similar time, we’ll preserve looking for our greatest mixture. If we choose our greatest lineup for the World Cup now, then it is going to be troublesome to encourage gamers not included in that group. We now have our huge image set, however we’ll proceed to encourage competitors amongst gamers inside that framework proper up till the World Cup.”
