Son Heung-min celebrates after scoring Korea’s first goal during a friendly match against Colombia at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in the Mabo district, west of Seoul, on March 26, 2019. [NEWS1]
Korea faces Colombia in their first international match since the Qatar 2022 World Cup on Friday with new coach Jurgen Klinsmann on the touchline for the first time.
The friendly will be the first time the two teams have come face-to-face since Colombia beat Korea 2-1 at home in 2019.
Klinsmann has called up the same squad that went to Qatar last year barring two changes due to injury: Celtic’s Oh Heon-kyu and Suwon Samsung Bluewings’ Lee Ki-jae are the two new names on the list.
Captain Son Heung-min scored the team’s first goal in Korea’s 2-1 win over Colombia at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in the Mabo district, west of Seoul in 2019, with Lee Jae-sung scoring the winning goal.
The Mines midfielder is part of Klinsmann’s squad along with Sun. Lee has had a successful Bundesliga season so far, registering seven goals and three assists in 25 league appearances.
Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-chan is one of the players left out of the national team due to an injury he picked up last week.
The Celtic striker is expected to replace Oh Hwang, having scored three goals in 10 appearances for his new team.
Jeonbuk Hunai Motors’ Cho Gue-sung, who scored twice in last year’s World Cup against Ghana, is in the team alongside Oh and will lead the Daeguk Warriors’ attack against Colombia.
Cho was the top scorer in the K League last season with 17 goals and has one goal in four games so far in the 2023 K League.
The Colombian team, for its part, arrived in Korea after a quiet winter, failing to qualify for the World Cup.
The South American team is led by coach Néstor Lorenzo, who took over last year after his predecessor Renaldo Ruda was sacked after failing to qualify for the World Cup.
Colombian stars James Rodríguez of Olympiacos and Radamel Falcao of Rayo Vallecano are on the list, along with Son’s teammate Davinson Sánchez of Tottenham Hotspur.
Korea and Colombia have met seven times before, with Korea recording four wins, two draws and one loss so far.
The friendly will be played at the Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium in Ulsan on Friday.
Korea faces Uruguay in the second friendly next Tuesday, while Colombia plays its next game against Japan on the same day.
Por Baek Ji-hwan [[email protected]]
