SEOUL– The official trophy for this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup made an appearance in Seoul on Monday as part of its global tour leading up to the big competition.
The trophy was presented at Starfield COEX Mall in southern Seoul, as the South Korean capital city served as the second stop of FIFA’s Trophy Tour. The trophy flew in from Japan and will visit all 32 participating nations.
This year’s tournament will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to Aug. 20. It will be the first edition of the tournament featuring 32 nations.
South Korea, world No. 15, will face Germany (No. 2), Colombia (No. 27) and Morocco (No. 76) in Group H. South Korea will play all of their group matches in Australia and will stay there throughout the knockout stage should they advance.
This will be South Korea’s fourth appearance at the top women’s tournament. Their only previous knockout appearance came at the 2015 tournament in Canada.
“I am really excited just to have a chance to have an up-close look at the trophy,” said Colin Bell, head coach of the South Korean women’s national team, in Korean. “We will try to bring joy to our supporters at this World Cup.”
Switching to English, the Englishman said, “I really wish the most success for our team. We have a great team and we have great girls.”
Accompanying Bell to the event were two mainstays on the national team, Ji So-yun and Choe Yu-ri. The coach said the two players best represent the character of the squad, with their intelligence, technique, power and work rate.
Ji, the all-time South Korean leading scorer with 66 goals in 144 matches, will be playing at her third World Cup.
“Now that the trophy is here, I can really sense that the World Cup is fast approaching,” Ji said. “I’d love to do more than just looking at the trophy, and have a chance to touch it.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency