The South Korean and Qatari men's national football teams for Tuesday's Asian Games match in Japan arrived at the stadium about 30 minutes later than scheduled, after both of their drivers got lost on the way, a South Korean team official said.
The two countries were scheduled to open Group D action at 7:30 p.m. at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Rugby Field in Nagoya, with the warmup to begin 50 minutes before kickoff.
However, the teams arrived at the venue in central Japan around 6:20 p.m., leaving them barely enough time to get ready for their warmups. According to the official, drivers for both team buses went to an adjacent baseball stadium instead of the football venue.
The football stadium is part of Mizuho Sports Park, which also includes the baseball stadium and a track and field stadium.
The South Korean official said he did not expect the match to be pushed back, though the late arrivals forced players on both squads to scramble to get warmed up before the match on this rainy Tuesday night.
"Something like this should not have happened in an international competition," the Korean official said, adding that the Korea Football Association (KFA) had not yet filed an official complaint.
Players came out to the field to warm up in pouring rain around 6:45 p.m.
This was not the first transportation mishap for the South Korean football team here. Head coach Lee Min-sung was a few minutes late for his pretournament press conference Monday at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Rugby Field, after the organizing committee had failed to send a designated, official vehicle to the team hotel.
According to a KFA official, the organizing committee told Lee to take a taxi to the stadium instead, before the coach and a team staff member found another official vehicle that gave them a ride. (Yonhap)
