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| South Korea's women's national football team coach Colin Bell speaks during a press conference ahead of the friendly match against New Zealand at Paju National Football Center in Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 26. / Courtesy of KFA |
By John Duerden
There may be a lot of attention at the end of the month on whether the men's national team can secure a place at the 2022 World Cup, but there is more going on. Before then, the women will be in action at the 2022 Asian Cup. This tournament starts in India next Thursday and features 12 teams from around the continent.
It is not just about being champions of Asia, but also about qualifying for the 2023 World Cup that will be held in Australia and New Zealand.
For South Korea to lift the trophy at this year's event is a big ask. The team is the third-ranked in the tournament behind Japan and Australia, but those two powerhouses are still a little bit ahead of the rest of the pack. Equaling Korea's best-ever placing of third from the 2003 championship would be a fine achievement and also bring a bigger prize.
And that is the 2023 World Cup. Of the dozen teams that will start out in India (aside from Australia which already has an automatic place at the tournament it will co-host), there are five more spots for the top-performing teams at this year's Asian Cup. That is a very healthy proportion, and teams getting out of the group stage on the subcontinent in the coming days stand a very good chance of heading down under next year.
The first game is against Vietnam on Friday in the city of Pune, just south of Mumbai. This is a crucial test for the Koreans. Win this and then comes a clash with Myanmar, the weakest team in the group, three days later ― one that the East Asians will expect to win. Beat Vietnam and Korea should be OK.
It is also important as the final group game is against Japan, one of the powerhouses in the sport and world champion back in 2011. Korea does not have a great record against its East Asian neighbor and while that doesn't mean that victory is impossible, it is better to have secured a place in the knockout stage before that meeting.
Team Korea's coach Colin Bell is saying the kind of thing that coaches always say: it is all about taking it one game at a time. "The first goal is qualification for the World Cup, and then obviously try to win the (Asian Cup)," the Englishman said. "But we're going to do it in phases. The first step is Vietnam, the second step is Myanmar and the third step is Japan."
Once again, the star of the team, and one of the stars of the women's game, is Ji So-yun. The midfielder of four-time English champion Chelsea, who also reached the final of the 2021 UEFA Champions League, has scored 61 goals for her country. Much will rest on her shoulders, but then there is also plenty of other experience in Cho So-hyun and Lee Geum-min, also English-based players.
Such international knowhow should stand the team in good stead in India and be enough to qualify for the World Cup. That is the target and anything else will be a bonus.
