With South Korean football one step closer to advancing to the World Cup finals for the 11th consecutive time by winning two consecutive A matches in June, a generational change was also carried out. Bae Joon-ho (Stoke City), Oh Se-hoon (Machida Zelvia), Hwang Jae-won (Daegu FC), and Park Seung-wook (Kim Cheon Sang-moo) were selected for the first time and even made their debut.
South Korea advanced to the final preliminary round by ranking first in Group C in the second preliminary round of the “2026 FIFA North and Central America World Cup” in Asia, which ended on the 11th.
He failed to quickly find a replacement for former coach Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany), who was dismissed after the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup semifinal elimination in Qatar in February, so both March and June A matches had variables that he played under the “temporary head coach” system, but he recorded five wins and one draw (16 points) without defeat.
In particular, interim coach Kim Do-hoon, who led both Singapore (7-0 win) on the 6th and China (1-0 win) on the 11th, selected seven new faces on the A-match list in June, signaling a generational change.
Choi Joon (FC Seoul), Ha Chang-rae (Nagoya), and Hwang In-jae (Pohang Steelers) only joined the A team for the first time and postponed their debut to the next time, but they transfused new faces with Bae Joon-ho, Oh Se-hoon, Hwang Jae-won, and Park Seung-wook.
BAE JUN HO made the 2nd race even hotter
Bae Jun-ho scored his debut goal in a position composed of Hwang Hee-chan, Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Lee Jae-sung (Mainz), and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), who are active in Wolverhampton in the English Premier League (EPL).
Bae Joon-ho, who became a member of the A team in recognition of his performance in the English Professional Football Championship (second division) Stoke, made his debut on behalf of Lee Jae-sung in the 25th minute of the second half against Singapore, and also scored his debut goal nine minutes after playing.
In the match against China on Tuesday, he played for only one minute as he was deployed during extra time in the second half, but played in both games, heralding a new competition for the second term. She has displayed good performance in multiple areas, including penetration, possession and shooting.
Veteran Joo Min-kyu is the main player at the front line? Oh Se-hoon, who is next
Oh Se-hoon, a front-line striker, had to promise his next opportunity. He joined the A team for the first time thanks to stellar performance in the J1 league of Japanese pro soccer, but only played as a substitute at 42 minutes in the second half of the match against Singapore.
He used his good physicality to hold on from the front, but the time was short to record the attack point. 스포츠토토
Joo Min-kyu (Ulsan HD), a similar type of position competitor, showed good performance, such as scoring his A-match debut goal, so he was not chosen by coach Kim against China.
However, he was born in 1990 and raised expectations for the future in that it was a resource that could replace the old vacancy of Ju Min-gyu.