“10 goals and 0 concessions” in 2 October A matches “10 happy days”
Riding a three-match winning streak into the A-Match, national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann
welcomed the return of ‘Captain’ Son Heung-min (Tottenham) and smiled at his full-time performance.
Jürgen Klinsmann’s
Men’s national team cruised to a 6-0 victory over Vietnam in their second October A match at the Suwon
World Cup Stadium on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
The team, which started its winning streak with a 4-0 victory over Tunisia at the Seoul World Cup Stadium
on Oct. 13, extended its winning streak to three matches in a row against Vietnam.
After the game, Klinsmann said, “I’m pleased with the professionalism of the players. We scored a lot of
goals and played well, and I’m happy with their attitude and focus. We got the result we wanted.”
“Most importantly, we reproduced on the pitch what we have shown on the training ground in the last ten
days. “It was the last test before the second round of World Cup qualifiers in November, and it showed
that we are improving. It’s been a happy 10 days.”
Son Heung-min
Who watched from the bench in the last match against Tunisia to prevent injury, returned to the starting
lineup and played the full game. He also scored his 38th goal in his 114th A match.
“I talked to Son about playing the full 90 minutes,” Klinsmann said. Fortunately, the muscle injury didn’t
recur. I checked him again at the 60th minute and he was fine, so I let him play 90 minutes. It was
important that he played the full time with the captain.”
He added: “Son Heung-min was serious and didn’t slow down the tempo of the game. There is no
weakness against any opponent. He led by example as captain. I’m glad he played the full 90 minutes.”
Vietnam, ranked 95th in the FIFA rankings, is several places below South Korea in terms of objective quality.
Klinsmann’s trip to Vietnam is part of the team’s preparations for the second round of Asian qualifying for
the 2026 North and Central American World Cup, which begins in November.
South Korea will play Singapore (157th) next month, with a home first leg on Nov. 16 and an away second leg against China (80th) on Nov. 21.
In the long run, it’s also a test for the team to crack the dense defenses of weaker teams like Bahrain
(86th), Jordan (84th), and Malaysia (134th), which it will face in the group stage of next year’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in Qatar.
“We’re going to be facing teams that focus on defense, and we’ve been studying what we can do against
them,” Klinsmann said. We just have to keep thinking about how to play the game,” Klinsmann said.
“Every team has different tactics, but it’s positive that we’ve experimented a lot in the last two games and
found a lot of answers. I think against teams that drop down defensively, we need to attack the flanks,
and when we build up from the back, we need to get the ball into the midfield area quickly, and in the
opposition half, our forwards need to be aggressive and create chances. We did that well today.”
“We used our best 11 to bring continuity and continuity to the team,” he said of the decision to play Son
Heung-min, Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain-PSG), Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), and Kim Min-
jae (Bayern Munich) against Vietnam. “In November, the second round of World Cup qualifiers starts, and
after that, the Asian Cup. I think we need to have continuity and continuity to keep the momentum going.”
On midfielder Hwang In-beom (Zvezda)
Who was named to the starting lineup against Tunisia but was substituted after feeling discomfort in his
left adductor (inner thigh) during warm-ups and then missed the Vietnam game, Hwang said, “He gave
me feedback that he wasn’t 100%, so I didn’t want to take any chances and didn’t play him today.”
Finally, he also showed respect for Vietnam despite the six-goal victory.
“If you look at the score, it looks like an easy game, but it was a very difficult game. Vietnam had their
chances to score as well. If we play again tomorrow, we don’t know what the result will be. I want to
respect Vietnam, and I want to praise them for giving everything on the field.”
Meanwhile, after the two A matches in October, Klinsmann will be traveling to Europe to watch the 2023-
2024 Bundesliga on Sunday, when Lee Jae-sung’s Mainz will face Kim Min-jae’s Munich.
He will then take a short break at home in the United States before returning in early November to watch
the FA Cup and travel with Coach Chaduri to Singapore and Malaysia for the Asian Football