Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Seoul: Kim Hak-bum had a feeling the Asian Games Indonesia 2018 football re-draw would have an impact on his team and the Korea Republic Under-23 head coach was proven right when the United Arab Emirates were drawn in Group E on Wednesday.
That meant Korea Republic, the 2014 men's football gold medallists (pic below), would have to play an additional group stage match in their bid to retain the title.
Wednesday's re-draw in Kuala Lumpur was to include the UAE and Palestine, who were accidentially omitted during the initial draw in Jakarta on July 5.
Besides Korea Republic and UAE, Group E also has Kyrgyz Republic, Bahrain and Malaysia while Palestine joined hosts Indonesia, Hong Kong, Laos and Chinese Taipei in Group A.
Kim said playing an additional match would pose challenges to his squad but believed Korea Republic have a good chance of defending the gold medal won on home soil in 2014.
"Having to play one more match than other teams in such hot conditions will be an even bigger challenge than analysing opponents," Kim said.
"But no matter how difficult our situation may be, it's something we have to overcome. And I have faith in my players to come through and deliver a good result."
https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/photo/korea_republic-2014_asian_games-afp.html
