From
Send to

S. Korea to test back three in World Cup tune-up vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina: coach

May 31, 2018 - 20:31 By Yonhap

South Korea’s national football team head coach Shin Tae-yong said Thursday his side will test a back three system in the upcoming friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

South Korea will host BiH at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, on Friday. It will be South Korea’s last friendly match at home before leaving for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. After the BiH friendly, the men’s national team will have a ceremony where coaches and players will announce their goals and resolutions for the World Cup in Russia.

“Before we depart for the World Cup in Russia, I want to show a good performance and result to our home fans,” Shin said at a pre-match press conference. “Tomorrow, we will start with a back three.”

South Korea collected a 2-0 win over Honduras on Monday with a 4-4-2 formation. For the upcoming friendly, Shin is expected to use players who didn’t feature in the Honduras friendly.

“Bosnia have good players like (Edin) Dzeko and (Miralem) Pjanic, so it’s going to be more difficult than our match against Honduras,” he said. “I first told players what we should do in the middle and in the back, and how we should prepare for the World Cup.”

(Yonhap)


 Shin said the match against BiH is to prepare for their 2018 FIFA World Cup Group F opener in Russia. South Korea will face Sweden in Nizhny Novgorod on June 18, before meeting Mexico and Germany.

“We had a brief training session yesterday, and we’re not going to train for a long time later today,” he said. “Although we’ll fix some tactics when we go to Austria, I want to see how our players do against physically strong opponents.”

After playing against BiH, Shin will cut three players from his provisional roster and will confirm the 23-man list before flying to the team’s pre-World Cup training camp in Austria on Sunday.

Shin said he will discuss the final roster cut with his coaching staff after the BiH friendly and will announce result on Saturday.

“It will depend on which formations or tactics that we will use at the World Cup,” he said. “I have my thoughts on who should be cut from the list, but I have to listen to other coaches’ opinions.”

Shin, who previously coached South Korea’s under-20 and under-23 national teams, said he hopes he can continue to feed off good energy in Jeonju, some 240 kilometers south of Seoul. Last year, he coached teams that beat Guinea and Argentina with U-20 players in Jeonju at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

“I have good memories at Jeonju World Cup Stadium,” he said. “I hope I can receive that good energy again and play a good game.” (Yonhap)