Footballers gather for camp ahead of friendlies

Ahead of South Korea’s first international matches since the disappointing FIFA World Cup in Brazil, members of the country’s senior national squad gathered on Tuesday to open their training camp.

South Korea is scheduled to host Venezuela on Friday in Bucheon, just west of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, and to meet Uruguay on Monday in Goyang, northwest of the capital city. Both matches will kick off at 8 p.m.

The players first met at a hotel here in Goyang and are scheduled to begin training at the National Football Center in Paju, just north of Goyang.

The host will play these two matches without a head coach. Instead, three assistant coaches will serve on the bench. South Korea has yet to hire a replacement for Hong Myung-bo, who resigned in July in the aftermath of the country’s winless exit out of the World Cup.

Shin Tae-yong, a former head coach in the domestic K League Classic, will be joined by two assistants from Hong’s regime, Park Kun-ha and Kim Bong-soo. Shin will likely be the de facto head coach by seniority, as the 43-year-old is the oldest of the three by about two months.

The Korea Football Association, the sport’s national governing body, earlier said it was close to signing Dutchman Bert van Marwijk but the negotiations broke down over tax issues and on where the prospective coach would spend the majority of his time as the South Korea boss.

The KFA dispatched its technical director, Lee Yong-soo, to an unspecified overseas destination on Sunday to open negotiations with new candidates. European media reports claim that Lee has met with former Juventus bench boss Ciro Ferrara in London, though the KFA on Tuesday declined to confirm these reports. The KFA has said it hopes to fill the coaching vacancy by Sept. 15.

The 22-man roster for the two friendlies features 12 players who were on the World Cup squad, including captain Koo Ja-cheol of Mainz 05 and attacking winger Son Heung-min of Bayer Leverkusen, both based in Germany. Son is off to a fine start this season, having already scored two goals in the UEFA Champions League playoffs and another goal in the German League Cup. (Yonhap)