Refer Report
3rd preliminary round with Middle Eastern countries, superior in terms of power but long travel distance is a ‘headache’
61,900km of sky travel time for 10 games in a domestic league… It seems like it will help with adaptation to the main event
Graphics | Reporter Kim Deok-gi
Hong Myung-bo’s first departure for North and Central America is a long-distance war. With a schedule of 10 home and away matches against ‘bed soccer’, the sky travel is more difficult than ever.
The first leg of the 2026 North and Central American World Cup for the national soccer team led by coach Hong Myung-bo (55) is the Asian 3rd qualifying match against Palestine on the 5th at home (Seoul World Cup Stadium). The national team must fly to Muscat, Oman (11:00 PM on the 10th), where the second match will be held, in the early morning of the 7th, after only light recovery training. The distance alone is 6,592 km. Considering the 5-hour time difference, the burden is even greater.
A Korea Football Association official said, “The European players who joined a few days ago will have to prepare for the same situation, and the domestic players will have to return to their teams and play matches, so it will be a difficult schedule.”
In fact, the national team’s forced march was an expected result from the third preliminary round draw, which decided 6 of the 8.5 tickets to the main tournament. Top seed Korea was assigned to Group B last in the third preliminary round, and its opponents were filled only with Middle Eastern countries (Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine, Kuwait). It is positive that they have a clear advantage in objective power, but it is a headache that they only face opponents who have a long travel distance.
Looking at the schedule for the third qualifying round released by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Korea will have to fly 61,900 km (based on domestic players) by plane while playing 10 games during the tournament. The only time Korea will not be restricted in its travel in the third qualifying round is the 7th and 8th matches (Oman and Jordan) in March next year, when it will only play home games.
The October schedule (games 3 and 4) of playing against Jordan and Iraq in that order, away and at home, was difficult due to the difficult flight schedule, and it was difficult to secure recovery time, so they decided to move by charter plane. This charter plane costs around 800 million won just for a one-way trip from Amman, Jordan to home.
The distance traveled by European players, including Son Heung-min (Tottenham), will increase. If the first A match is away, they can join the team locally, but if the first match is held at home, they will have difficulty traveling from Europe to Seoul and then to the away game where the second match is held.
The burden of Korea’s long-distance battle in the third round is that the other countries’ travel distances are relatively short. Except for each country visiting Korea once, they only travel in the same Middle East, even when going back and forth between home and away games. Except for the possibility that Palestine, which is struggling due to the war between Israel and Hamas, may play its home games in a third country, there are not many variables.
However, some say that Hong Myung-bo’s quick accustoming to long-distance travel will help him adapt to the main tournament. The North and Central American World Cup will be held in 16 cities in 3 countries, including the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The remaining countries, excluding the host country, will have to overcome the burden of traveling at least 2,000 km between group matches. Coach Hong Myung-bo said, “Our players will have difficulty physically when we pass the middle of the final third preliminary round,” and “I am thinking about how to maintain the players’ condition well.”
Source: Korean