South Korea Aiming High in Women’s Football at Asian Games

Paju, South Korea, MINA — Four years after failing to capture the Asian Games gold on home soil, South Korean women’s football team will take aim at the ultimate prize in Indonesia next month, Yonhapnreported, ciiting ts head coach Monday.

South Korea have settled for bronze medals in women’s football at each of the past two Asian Games, and they remain the country’s best showings at the continental competition so far.

Head coach Yoon Duk-yeo, who also led South Korea at Incheon 2014, said he’d like to shed the disappointment of the past and deliver the goods at the Aug. 18-Sept. 2 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.

Yoon Duk-yeo, head coach of the South Korean women’s national football team, speaks to reporters at the National Football Center in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on July 30, 2018.

“We have had some roster turnover from four years ago, and new faces have showed plenty of ability and potential,” Yoon told reporters at the start of the team’s training camp at the National Football Center (NFC) in Paju, north of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province.

“With a mix of veterans and new players, I can tell you we will have better results than four years ago,” Yoon added.

South Korea are in Group A with Indonesia, Taiwan and Maldives. North Korea, the defending champions and winners of three of the past four gold medals, are in Group B with China, Hong Kong and Tajikistan.

Group C only has three countries: Japan, Vietnam and Thailand.

The top three nations from Groups A and B, and the top two from Group C will advance to the quarterfinals.

North Korea and Japan have met in the last three Asian Games finals, and South Korea will likely have to get past either of them, or both, to win gold in Indonesia.    (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)