Taeguk Warriors already fighting a losing battle

QATAR will bee South Korea’s tenthh consecutive World Cup finals buut aside from thheir fourth-placed finish on hhome soil in 2002, they have faailed to have a major say in any ofo those tournaments.

That has been particullarly true in the last two editioons, where the Taegeuk Warriors have taken justt four points from their six group games.

However, they did qualify for Qatar at a canter, with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of United Arab Emmirates when progress was alreaady assured the only blot on their copybook in 16 games.

Heung-Min Son had a strong 2021-22 season for Tottenham, sharing the Premier League Golden Boot with Mohamed Salah on 23 goals.

However, a fracture around his left eye required surgery just weeks before the finals to leave the Spurs forward arriving in Qatar as a huge injury doubt.

The majority of Son’s teammates play their league football domestically but there are some European-based talents outside Son in their 26. The most progressive of those is 23-year-old WooYeong Jeong, who played a key role last season for Freiburg, with five goals in 32 league games.

Napoli’s Min-Jae Kim has been an integral part of one of the best defences in Europe this season and Wolves’s HeeChan Hwang is also likely to play a large part in any Taegeuk Warriors success.

South Korea’s Under-20s finished runners-up in the 2019 World Cup but only three from that squad have made full international appearances.

Given the ease with which they qualified, Paulo Bento’s side have not faced any toplevel opposition for a while and were soundly beaten 5-1 by Brazil in June when they did.

This step up in class may catch them out and progress to the knockout stages looks unlikely, particularly if star man Son is not at full strength.