Korea prepares for first cup match

SYDNEY (Yonhap) ― The South Korean men’s national soccer team on Tuesday left Sydney for Canberra, the site of its first two matches of the upcoming AFC Asian Cup.

Coached by Uli Stielike, the 23-man team will be trying to win South Korea’s first Asian Cup title since 1960.

The country has been paired with Australia, Oman and Kuwait in Group A. The first match for South Korea will be against Oman at the 25,000-seat Canberra Stadium on Saturday.

South Korea, ranked 69th in the world, will stay in Canberra to face Kuwait next Tuesday. The Group A finale will be against Australia in Brisbane on Jan. 17 at Brisbane Stadium, with 52,500 seats.

The continent’s largest football competition will feature 16 nations divided into four groups, and the top two nations from each group will reach the quarterfinals.

In its final warm-up match Sunday, South Korea blanked Saudi Arabia 2-0 in Sydney. Stielike said the first half was “the worst 45 minutes” South Korea played in the five matches he’s coached since October, but that he was satisfied that the players turned things around in the second half.

Stielike also said he was encouraged by the way the team competed without key veterans: defender Cha Du-ri sat out with a knee injury, while midfield stalwarts Lee Chung-yong and Ki Sung-yueng were unavailable after joining the national team at the last minute following their club matches in England.

Cha, the oldest member of the team at 34, is still nursing a sore knee that has kept him off the field since last week. Team officials say the injury isn’t considered serious and that there have been no talks of replacing Cha before the first match.

Goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong had missed a few days of practice with a sore leg but returned to action Monday.

Jung, the most experienced goalkeeper on Stielike’s squad with 64 caps, went through the same drills as the other two custodians, Kim Jin-hyeon and Kim Seung-gyu.

On Sunday, Kim Jin-hyeon started the country’s last tune-up match against Saudi Arabia and Kim Seung-gyu played the second half.

Both goalkeepers made key saves to bail out mediocre defenders in front of them.

Jung had been out of action since Wednesday with sore leg muscles but said he’s finally back to full strength.

“I am completely healthy,” the 30-year-old said. “I am going to prepare the best I can as a member of this team.”

Though Jung is a veteran of two FIFA World Cups, the two Kims ― who are unrelated ― appear to have an inside track on the No. 1 job ahead of South Korea’s opening Group A match against Oman.