Hong Myung-bo who collapsed in the spine line..."Crisis solver." Son Heungmin's toes. "Attention!"
Hong Myung-bo who collapsed in the spine line..."Crisis solver." Son Heungmin's toes. "Attention!"
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Whenever Hong Myung-bo was shaken, "captain" Son Heung-min (Tottenham), who has been at the forefront of escaping the crisis with a valuable scoring shot, had to demonstrate his "solver ability" again.
The South Korean national soccer team, led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, will play at Suwon World Cup Stadium at 8 p.m. on the 25th against Jordan in the eighth round of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 North-China World Cup.
Hong Myung-bo, who is trying to advance to the World Cup finals for the 11th consecutive time, drew 1-1 at home in Game 7 of the third qualifying round against Oman on the 20th, putting a damper on the atmosphere of "early confirming the World Cup ticket."
The national team initially planned to beat Oman, a relatively weak player, and then catch Jordan, its opponent in Game 8, and confirm its advance to the World Cup finals early regardless of the results of the remaining two games.
However, Hong Myung-bo ended up with a draw with Oman amid a series of "injury bad news" in the match against Oman, causing a setback.
Ahead of the match against Oman, Jung Seung-hyun (Alwaseul) of the defense injured his left calf muscle and fell out of the lineup, and Baek Seung-ho (Birmingham City) was replaced by a left hamstring injury in the actual match, and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), who was deployed instead, was also carried away by a left ankle injury.
All three injured were released from the call-up after a thorough examination.
Coincidentally, Baek Seung-ho, Lee Kang-in and Jung Seung-hyun are "spine lines" leading to central midfielders and central defense, so coach Hong Myung-bo has repeatedly agonized over the composition of players against Jordan.
Hwang In-beom (Feyenoord), a "middle-class coordinator" who suffered from a calf injury, is likely to start against Jordan as he took a break from the match against Oman to control his condition, and Won Doo-jae (Korpakan) can take the position without Baek Seung-ho.
However, head coach Hong Myung-bo's concern is that if even Hwang In-beom fails to play full-time properly in the absence of Baek Seung-ho and Lee Kang-in, there are not enough alternative resources.
In the end, Hong Myung-bo's best solution to victory against Jordan is for offensive resources to open their scoring in the beginning.
In that sense, "captain" Son Heung-min's ability to solve the problem has become more desperate.
Jordan (score point 12, goal difference +6), ranked 54th in the FIFA rankings, is in second place after South Korea (score point 15, goal difference +6) in Group B of the third qualifying round.
Jordan has the same points as third-place Iraq (12 points), but ranked second in goal difference.
In the third qualifying round, Jordan is also important to keep second place as the first and second places in each group win a ticket to the World Cup.
With Iraq facing "last-place" Palestine (3 points) in the eighth round of the third qualifying round, Jordan is likely to actively challenge South Korea to build points. 메이저사이트
Hong Myung-bo, who has been struggling with dense soccer in the Middle East, can take more chances to score if Jordan is offensive.
Hong Myung-bo has a clear memory of winning 2-0 against Jordan on October 11 last year with consecutive points scored by Lee Jae-sung (Mainz) and Oh Hyun-kyu (Henk).