Category: Sports

Brentford FC defender Kim Ji-soo will not play for South Korea at the upcoming Olympic men’s football qualifiers in Qatar due to his club commitments, the national football federation announced Monday, the latest blow to the country’s pursuit of a ticket to Paris.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) said Brentford decided not to release their 19-year-old defender for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup, citing club-related reasons. Head coach Hwang Sun-hong selected Pohang Steelers midfielder Kim Dong-jin as replacement.

Hwang’s team traveled to Dubai last Friday to set up training camp and they’re scheduled to travel to Qatar on Wednesday. The U-23 Asian Cup, which doubles as the AFC qualifiers for the Paris Olympics, will kick off next Monday.

Kim Ji-soo, who doesn’t turn 20 until Christmas Eve, would have been South Korea’s youngest player at the AFC event. He has appeared in three matches for the U-23 national team and also earned a callup to the senior national team for the AFC Asi
an Cup earlier this year in Qatar, though he didn’t see any action.

Kim had been one of five players based in foreign leagues selected by Hwang on March 29. However, clubs aren’t obliged to release their international players for this AFC tournament, which isn’t on the FIFA international match calendar.

Hours before South Korean players flew to Dubai, Scottish champions Celtic FC informed the KFA that they would not send forward Yang Hyun-jun to Qatar. Brentford followed suit Monday and will keep Kim Ji-soo in England.

Of the remaining overseas-based players, Dusseldorf forward Kim Min-woo joined the South Korean squad in Dubai on Saturday. Bae Jun-ho of Stoke City and Jeong Sang-bin of Minnesota United have yet to report to the national team.

At the AFC tournament, South Korea will play in Group B against the United Arab Emirates, China and Japan.

The top two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the quarterfinals, and the top three nations will book their spots in the Olympics. The fourth-
place team will face Guinea in an intercontinental playoff.

South Korea have played at every Olympic men’s football tournament since the under-23 age limit was put in place in 1992.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The San Diego Padres’ South Korean reliever Go Woo-suk will begin his season in Double-A.

The San Antonio Missions, the Double-A affiliate of the Padres, announced their initial roster of 28 players for the 2024 season Tuesday (local time). Their season starts Friday.

Go is the only player among the 28 who is on the Padres’ 40-man roster. This means Go has three minor league “options.” Each option allows a player to be sent to the minors without having to be placed on waivers first.

Go, after pitching for the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) over the past seven years, signed a two-year, US$4.5 million contract with the Padres in January. However, Go had a shorter offseason than most other players, after pitching into mid-November during the Twins’ Korean Series title run and making multiple trips between South Korea and the United States to finalize his Padres deal.

With an understanding that Go would need more time to prepare for major league challenges, the Padres first optioned Go to
Triple-A El Paso on March 20, while they were in Seoul to play their season-opening series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres then sent him further down to Double-A San Antonio, though Go can still jump directly from there to San Diego.

Go had said back on March 20 he was determined to “keep working hard” so he could make it to the majors at some point during the 2024 season.

In explaining the Padres’ decision to demote Go, manager Mike Shildt said at the time: “We are confident that he’s going to help us at some point in the season. He has made really nice adjustments as the spring has gone not only with the new baseball, the competition, the culture, everything. He has done a really nice job.”

In San Antonio, Go is joined by a fellow KBO alum, former Lotte Giants outfielder Zach Reks.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The San Francisco Giants’ rookie center fielder Lee Jung-hoo has stretched his on-base streak to six games to start his major league career.

The South Korean leadoff man went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 5-4 loss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Tuesday (local time).

Lee has now reached base safely in all six games so far this season, with a home run, four RBIs and three walks. He is batting .292/.345/.417 with a home run and four RBIs.

He had struck out only twice in 19 previous at-bats, but he went down swinging on three pitches against Ryan Brasier in the top of the first inning in this game.

Lee came on in the second inning against new pitcher Ryan Yarbrough, with runners at first and second and the score tied at 1-1. But Lee grounded out to second baseman Gavin Lux for the final out of the frame.

With Yarbrough still pitching in the fifth, Lee flied out to left field. Then in the seventh, Lee struck out looking against Michael Grove, who found the outside corn
er with a 0-2 slider.

Lee kept his on-base streak alive in his final at-bat, as he hit a single to right field off closer Evan Phillips with two outs in the ninth.

Lee represented the tying run, but then Matt Chapman struck out to end the game.

The one other South Korean player in the majors, San Diego Padres shortstop Kim Ha-seong, went 0-for-4 from the No. 5 spot in a 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

At Petco Park in San Diego, Kim led off the bottom of the second against starter Miles Mikolas with a groundout to shortstop, and then grounded out to third in the third.

In the fifth, with Mikolas still pitching, Kim flied out to center field.

Kim had been 3-for-6 against Mikolas before Tuesday’s meeting.

In the eighth, facing reliever Andrew Kittredge, Kim grounded out to third.

The hitless day brought Kim’s average down from .269 to .233. He has a home run, four RBIs and two steals.

Kim, the 2023 Gold Glove winner at the utility spot, did flash his leather in this game. In the top of the fourth,
Kim snagged a grounder that Nolan Arenado hit into the hole to his left, and fired a one-hop strike on the run to first baseman Jake Cronenworth for the out.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Son Heung-min reached a milestone in his latest match for Tottenham Hotspur, though it came in a draw that cost them a shot at grabbing the coveted fourth spot in the Premier League tables.

Son appeared in his 400th match for Spurs in an away match against West Ham United at London Stadium in London on Tuesday (local time). Son played the entire match, but Spurs ended up in a 1-1 draw, unable to stay in front after Brennan Johnson scored just five minutes in. Son was credited with one shot on target.

The draw gave Tottenham 57 points through 30 matches, two back of Aston Villa for fourth with eight matches remaining. The top four clubs in each Premier League season qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the following season.

Aston Villa are scheduled to play Manchester City on Wednesday, after which they will have seven matches left in the season.

Son is tied for fifth in goals with 15 and sixth in assists with eight. The captain had a productive March, scoring twice for the South Korean national team
in two World Cup qualifying matches and netting three in four appearances for Spurs.

Son became the 14th player in Tottenham history to reach the 400-match plateau but ranks third all time since the foundation of the Premier League in 1992, behind ex-skipper Hugo Lloris (447 matches) and Son’s former sidekick Harry Kane (435).

Son also ranks fifth on the club’s all-time goals list with 160.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, South Korea’s football federation will interview 11 candidates, including seven foreign nationals, for the men’s national team coaching vacancy, a senior official said Tuesday, with the goal of hiring the new boss by mid-May at the latest.

Chung Hae-sung, head of the National Teams Committee at the Korea Football Association (KFA), said the list of candidates was whittled down from 32 to 11 following his committee’s meeting earlier Tuesday.

“We will have in-depth interviews with these 11 candidates and try to name the new coach by early or middle of May,” Chung told reporters, after presiding over the fifth round of the committee’s meetings on naming the new head coach.

The position has been vacant since the KFA fired Jurgen Klinsmann on Feb. 16, in the aftermath of South Korea’s semifinal loss at the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup.

Hwang Sun-hong, head coach of the men’s under-23 national team, filled in as a caretaker manager for the senior team’s two World Cup qualifying matches last mo
nth. Chung thanked Hwang for holding the fort while guiding South Korea to a win and a draw in a home-and-away series against Thailand. But Chung denied rumors that Hwang, who will coach South Korea at the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament later this month, is in line to take over the senior team job after the Paris Summer Games.

Chung did not name any of the 11 candidates but acknowledged that Hwang “may have an opportunity” to earn the full-time senior squad coaching job.

Chung said the KFA will hold online interviews with the seven foreign candidates, and members of his committee have already begun analyzing those candidates’ tactics and philosophies through match videos. The KFA will meet with the four South Korean candidates after its interviews with foreign hopefuls are finished, though Chung insisted it doesn’t mean the KFA prefers one group over the other.

“We just have more information on South Korean candidates than we do on foreign candidates,” Chung said. “It’s logistically difficult for me t
o travel overseas to meet all of those seven candidates. We will have online interviews now, and then once we narrow down the list further, then I will have a chance to interview candidates in person.”

The last two national team coaches have both been foreign nationals, with Klinsmann succeeding Paulo Bento, who coached South Korea to the round of 16 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The KFA has employed several other foreign-born coaches over the years, to varying degrees of success.

“We will try to share the KFA’s vision on techniques and philosophy with the candidates, and we will hire the person that we think will be the best fit,” Chung said. “We will consider how much conviction the candidate has in his own philosophy. With foreign candidates, we will see how well the new coach can fit in with Korean football culture.”

Without revealing names, Chung said the list of South Korean candidates includes coaches currently working in the K League. The KFA faced some heat in February for apparently contacting curr
ent K League head coaches for the national team job only days before the start of the new K League campaign. Chung admitted that poaching a coach from a K League club in May, as opposed to February, would still upset the team’s players and supporters, but asked them for their understanding.

“I think coaching the national team is a way of serving Korean football, and it’s an honorable position for coaches,” Chung said, recalling his own days of coaching national squads in different age groups. “When a coach leaves a club in the middle of a season, it’ll obviously be a tough situation for that team. But we will make sure to have close communication with the club if it comes to that, and we will try to be respectful to the club’s supporters.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

With South Korea preparing for the Olympic men’s football qualifying tournament kicking off in two weeks, head coach Hwang Sun-hong on Monday emphasized the importance of cohesion.

“There will be no such thing as an easy opponent,” Hwang told reporters before a training session at Icheon Stadium in Icheon, some 60 kilometers south of Seoul. “No matter whom we face, it’s really up to how we prepare. Our players have a strong desire to play at the Olympics, and I have confidence in them.”

South Korea will compete at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup in Qatar. They are in Group B against Japan, China and the United Arab Emirates.

The top two teams from four groups will advance to the quarterfinals. The top three nations will punch their tickets to Paris for the Olympics this summer, while the fourth-place team will face an African opponent in a playoff match later.

Throughout his media availability, Hwang stressed that it takes a total team effort to get the job done. He cited Argentina’
s run to the 2022 FIFA World Cup title as an example.

“They say Lionel Messi covered 7 kilometers to win the World Cup, but without his teammates, such as Rodrigo De Paul, Argentina wouldn’t have won it,” Hwang said. “Players on this team may not be as talented as the ones from the Asian Games (where South Korea won gold), but I think they can form an even tighter team here. We should work that to our advantage.”

Hwang called up five overseas-based players for his 23-man squad, but it remains uncertain exactly when they will join the national team and how long they will stay. The AFC tournament isn’t part of the FIFA international calendar, and teams aren’t obliged to release their Korean players for the occasion.

Hwang has at least been able to get a handful of foreign clubs to send their Korean youngsters to Qatar, a group that includes Stoke City midfielder Bae Jun-ho, Celtic midfielder Yang Hyun-jun and Brentford defender Kim Ji-soo.

“There will be some variables, but we’re going to remain hopeful,” H
wang said. “We will have to think of Plan B, though.”

Hwang served as caretaker manager for the senior national team last month for two World Cup qualifying matches. After South Korea had a win and a draw against Thailand, Hwang emerged as a candidate to become the full-time boss for the senior side, in place of Jurgen Klinsmann.

Hwang said last week he wasn’t interested in the senior national team job and repeated that tune Monday.

“I am sure the Korea Football Association will make a good call on that. It’s not for me to say,” Hwang said. “I have to keep moving with my players here toward our next goal.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency