SEOUL, With yet another caretaker manager in charge, South Korea will look to book an early ticket to the next phase in the ongoing Asian World Cup qualifying campaign when they visit Singapore this week.

South Korea will play Singapore at the National Stadium in Singapore on Thursday. The match kicks off at 8 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. in South Korea.

It will be the fifth of the six matches South Korea are scheduled to play in the second round of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. South Korea will host China in Seoul next Tuesday to wrap up the second round.

There are nine groups of four in action in this phase, and the top two nations from each group will advance to the third round, which begins in September.

South Korea are leading Group C with 10 points, followed by China with seven and Thailand with four. And South Korea can secure at least the second seed out of their group by having at least a draw against Singapore on Thursday.

That will ensure Sout
h Korea will finish at least one point ahead of Thailand for second place, even if Thailand win their two remaining matches.

Ranked 23rd in the world, South Korea should have little trouble against 155th-ranked Singapore. In their first Group C clash on Nov. 16 last year, South Korea prevailed 5-0, with five different players scoring a goal apiece.

Jurgen Klinsmann was in charge of South Korea then. He was sacked in February following South Korea’s disappointing exit from the semifinals at the AFC Asian Cup. The Korea Football Association (KFA) still has not found his replacement.

Faced with a time crunch ahead of two World Cup qualifiers in March, the KFA put Hwang Sun-hong, then head coach of the under-23 men’s national team, in a caretaker role for the senior side. And after failing to name Klinsmann’s successor by its self-imposed early-May deadline, the KFA once again turned to a temporary coach for the June matches, this time former K League tactician Kim Do-hoon.

Kim selected seven players who have
never before competed for the senior national team. Four of them, including Stoke City midfielder Bae Jun-ho, have starred for underage national teams in the past. Nagoya Grampus defender Ha Chang-rae, 29, is one of three players who have never donned a national team shirt in any age group.

Before departing for Singapore on Sunday evening, Kim said all seven players bring good qualities to the table and they will have a chance to earn playing time in the next two matches.

The presence of these new faces could inject some life into a rudderless program that has been teetering between underachieving and maddening.

“On defense, I selected players who have shown some aggressiveness, not some passive types,” coach Kim told reporters before departing for Singapore on Sunday. “Some of our mainstays were injured or were not available for some personal reasons for this trip. We had to name some new faces, and after talking with our staff and the KFA, we chose players who we think can get the job done at their respe
ctive positions.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency