Klinsmann’s men to face Tunisia on Nov. 13 as they look to continue winning streak ahead of Asian Cup
The South Korean national soccer team, coached by Jürgen Klinsmann (GER), will look to extend their winning streak.
South Korea will take on Tunisia at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Mapo-gu, Seoul, for the Hana Bank Invitational Soccer Team Friendly.
Klinsmann, who took over the reins of the South Korean national team in February, hadn’t won a game in three A matches until a 1-0 victory over Wales in early September.
Klinsmann has the distinction of being the manager who took the longest to get his first win since the Korea Football Association introduced the full-time national team manager system in 1992.
After registering their first win against Saudi Arabia, Klinsmann’s side will now face Tunisia (Oct. 17) and Vietnam (Oct. 18) in back-to-back A matches.
Korea is ranked 26th and Tunisia is ranked 29th in the FIFA World Rankings.
Starting with Saudi Arabia, the second A-Match opponent in September, Korea will continue to prepare for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in January 2024 in Qatar.
Saudi Arabia is the favorite to win the Asian Cup, and Tunisia, a North African country, is classified as an Arab country, so there are many similarities with the Middle Eastern countries we will face at the Asian Cup.
Vietnam, ranked 95th in the FIFA rankings, will also give us some practice against defensive-minded teams, as we did against South Korea at the Asian Cup.
For the time being, Klinsmann’s focus will be on preparing for the Asian stage, as the team will also play an Asian qualifier for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in November.
For the matches against Tunisia and Vietnam, our national team was ‘complete’.
During the June A match, Son Heung-min (Tottenham) was injured and Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) was away on military training, and in September, Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) was unable to join the team due to injury.
Despite the recent controversy over Son Heung-min, Klinsmann said in an interview on the 9th that “fatigue of overseas players is inevitable,” but that “Son Heung-min is less so because his team did not play in the European club competition” and that he will use him normally.
As for Lee Kang-in, “we will give him enough playing time to utilize him in this call-up,” he said.
In fact, although Klinsmann won the match against Saudi Arabia, the result against Tunisia is also important for him.
Criticisms of Klinsmann’s lack of commitment to the national team, such as his time in Korea and appearances on foreign television, were put to rest with the victory over Saudi Arabia, but a poor result against Tunisia could lead to further anxiety ahead of the Asian Cup. 스포츠토토
In addition, Vietnam, our second opponent in the A-Match, is a team that is considered to be a step below us, so if we fail against Tunisia, it will be difficult to silence the critics no matter how well we perform against Vietnam.
On the other hand, a win over Tunisia would give us a great chance to make it three in a row, as we have a good chance of winning against Vietnam.
Tunisia were knocked out of last year’s World Cup in Qatar after one win, one draw, and one loss in the group stage, but they showed plenty of promise, beating France and drawing with Denmark.
Head coach Jalal Khadiri, who also led the team to the World Cup in Qatar, remains at the helm.
Key players include captain Yousif Masakini (Al Ahrabi), who has scored 20 goals in A matches, and midfielder Yasser Shaheeri, who plays for Frankfurt in Germany.
After the match against South Korea, Tunisia will travel to Japan to face Japan on Sept. 17.
South Korea has played Tunisia in two international friendlies so far, drawing one and losing one.
They drew 0-0 away in 2002 and lost 0-1 in Seoul in 2014.