DOHA– Looking to shake off a heartbreaking loss to Ghana from the previous day, the South Korean players returned to training on Tuesday with an eye on the knockout stage.
Starters from Monday’s 3-2 loss to Ghana did some recovery work for about half an hour at Al Egla Training Site in Doha before returning to the team hotel in the Qatari capital. The rest of the 26-man squad stayed back to gear up for South Korea’s final Group H match against Portugal on Friday.
South Korea must win that match over world No. 9 and then get help from the two other teams in the group, Uruguay and Ghana, in order to advance to the round of 16. Portugal, winners of two straight matches, have already locked down their knockout spot and will look to grab the top seed by beating South Korea.
Injured attacking midfielder Hwang Hee-chan did sprinting drills at full speed, after missing both of the team’s first two matches with hamstring problems. Head coach Paulo Bento said earlier Tuesday that the team will monitor Hwang’s recovery in the coming days and the lineup decision for Friday will be made at the last minute.
Center back Kim Min-jae, who played against Ghana with his injured right calf taped, will also be someone to keep an eye on, Bento said, though it’s unlikely Kim, South Korea’s best defender, will miss the team’s most important match of the tournament so far.
This is South Korea’s 11th World Cup appearance, and they have been in the knockouts twice. They reached the semifinals in 2002 as co-hosts of the tournament with Japan, and made it to the round of 16 in 2010 in South Africa.
Source: Yonhap News Agency