SEOUL– An up-and-coming forward in the domestic league was named to the South Korean men’s national football team Monday ahead of two World Cup qualifying matches this month.
Kim Gun-hee of Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the K League 1 was among 25 players on the newest iteration of the national team, as unveiled by head coach Paulo Bento on Monday.
Kim, 26, is replacing FC Girondins de Bordeaux forward Hwang Ui-jo, a national team mainstay who is sidelined with a hamstring injury. Kim has appeared in two matches for the under-23 national team but has never played for the senior side.
Kim and another K League player, Cho Gue-sung of Gimcheon Sangmu, are the two forwards. Kim has six goals and an assist for Suwon in 20 matches this season.
“He’s a player that we’ve followed for a long time. He has good features,” Bento said of Kim at an online press conference Monday. “I think he’s a player that can adapt himself to our way of playing. We think he can help us due to his characteristics and features.”
In the ongoing final Asian qualification round for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, South Korea, world No. 35, will first host the 71st-ranked United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Nov. 11 at Goyang Stadium in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul. They will then face the 72nd-ranked Iraq on Nov. 16 in Qatar as the neutral venue.
Through four out of 10 matches, South Korea sit in second place in Group A with eight points from two wins and two draws. They’re two points back of the leaders Iran, also undefeated with three wins and one draw.
The UAE and Iraq each have three points from three draws and one loss. They’re ranked fourth and fifth in the group, with the UAE holding the tiebreak edge in goal difference.
There are two groups of six in the final round, and the top two nations from each group will punch their tickets to Qatar. The two third-place teams will meet in a playoff, with the winner moving on to the last-chance intercontinental playoff.
South Korea have played at every World Cup since 1986.
There were few other changes from the team that competed in October. Bento will carry nine defenders instead of 10 from last month, with the veteran centerback Kim Young-gwon of Gamba Osaka not making the cut this time.
Bento explained that Kim suffered an unspecified injury on Oct. 24 and needed two to three weeks to recover.
The midfield corps features usual suspects, such as Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur and Hwang Hee-chan of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Gwangju FC’s Um Won-sang, who made his senior international debut a year ago, is back in the mix.
“He’s a fast player, and he can play on both sides. He’s a player that can attack the space very, very well,” Bento said of Um. “In that (winger) position, we have a lot of players that are playing well. He’s a technical and tactical option.”
For the second straight month, Bento named four goalkeepers, with Kim Seung-gyu once again expected to carry the bulk of the workload.
South Korea have seven wins, 12 draws and two losses against Iraq so far. Most recently, the two sides played to a scoreless draw in their first meeting of the current qualifying round in September.
South Korea have faced the UAE 19 times, with 12 wins, five draws and two losses. This will be their first meeting since a 3-0 South Korean win in a friendly match in June 2015.
Source: Yonhap News Agency