The journey to the North and Central American World Cup begins Hong Myung-bo’s national soccer team takes its first step
The journey to the North and Central American World Cup begins Hong Myung-bo’s national soccer team takes its first step
Blog Article
The 'Hong Myung-bo' national team, re-formed after 10 years, has taken its first step toward the 2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup.
The Korean national soccer team, led by coach Hong Myung-bo, held its first training session at Goyang Stadium in Gyeonggi Province on the afternoon of the 2nd. This is the first official training session for the national team, which has been reorganized under coach Hong.
During the September A-match (match between national teams), Hong Myung-bo will begin the first schedule of the third round of 2026 North and Central America World Cup qualifiers.
They will face Palestine at 8 PM on the 5th at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, and they will face Oman at 11 PM on the 10th at the Sultan Qaboos Stadium in Muscat, Oman.
Coach Hong and his coaching staff, who are preparing for the full-fledged journey towards the North and Central American World Cup, met the players on the ground for the first time on this day.
Of the 26 players on the national team list announced by Coach Hong on the 26th of last month, only 19 showed up at the training site.
Among the 12 K-League players, 7 overseas players including 커뮤니티 Lee Jae-seong (Mainz), Um Ji-seong (Swansea City), Jo Yu-min (Sharjah), Park Yong-woo (Al Ain), Jung Seung-hyun (Al Wasl), Oh Se-hoon (Machida Zelvia), and Song Bum-geun (Shonan Bellmare) received guidance from Coach Hong.
Coach Hong gathered the players and coaching staff in a circle at the start of training and gave a five-minute speech to set the mood.
Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), who just returned from England, did not participate in training that day.
Major overseas players who have been playing for their teams until just before the international break, including South Korean soccer star and captain Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), Hwang In-beom, and Seol Young-woo (all Zvezda), will also join on the 3rd.
Coach Hong decided to delay the training time to 7 p.m. on the 3rd so that all 26 players could meet each other on the ground.
The three-day training was originally scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. on this day.
If this happens, there will be a problem where players who just arrived at Incheon International Airport in the afternoon will not be able to make it to training time even if they go straight to Goyang Stadium, so they are considering adjusting their schedule.
However, the coaching staff's position is that they will not unconditionally stick to 'complete training' as the condition and physical condition of the players who have arrived after a long flight are the top priority.
In fact, not only overseas players but also K-League players played in real matches until just before the break. Hana Bank K-League 1 2024 Round 29 was held until the 1st.