The national soccer team has begun acclimatization training to prepare for the must-win return match against Thailand.
The team, led by interim head coach Hwang Sun-hong, held its first training session at the Windmill Football Club in Bangkok, Thailand, on Wednesday afternoon (Feb. 23).
After arriving in Bangkok late the previous evening, the team spent the morning training individually at the golf resort, a five-minute drive from the training center. The team trained with weights to get in shape to their own standards.
The team played a 1-1 draw against Thailand in the third match of Group C of the Asia Second Qualifying Round for the 2026 North and Central America World Cup at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on June 21. After the match, the team had a short overnight stay to see their families and arrived in Bangkok via Incheon International Airport on the afternoon of the 22nd.
The team had little time to recover from fatigue. The first practice on the training ground was actually their first practice. The sun was down and the wind was blowing briskly, but the humidity was higher. The training started at 6:30 p.m. Thai time and the game started at 7:30 p.m., almost exactly the same time.
According to the Thai Meteorological Department, the weather during training was clear, 31 degrees Celsius, and 72% humidity. With clear skies, it would not have been strange to sweat like it was raining. It’s a 180-degree change from Korea, where we played in temperatures between 10 and 12 degrees.
However, the players adapted quickly. The training ground conditions were so good that they just needed to focus. “It’s better to come here and adapt than to spend time in Korea because of the high humidity,” said Hwang. The grass is not too bad, as is the training pitch,” said Hwang.
Captain Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur), who played the full time, and Lee Jae-sung (Mainz 05), who started, focused on recovering from fatigue by wearing sneakers. On the other hand, Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) and others who played briefly were placed in the basic training group and warmed up with basic physical fitness exercises to balance their bodies.
The drill was open to the public for 15 minutes and then closed. One side of the training area was covered with a black cloth. This 바카라사이트 was to maintain security. Of course, there were tall buildings outside, so it was possible to take pictures of the training, but the center’s security guards sealed the area around the main entrance.
The athletes were all smiles. If they had to face a lot of negative publicity in Korea, they seemed to be relieved to come from so far away. The athletes’ faces were also bright as they got off the bus.
There were cheers and laughter as they entered the training center, which was a change from Seoul, where they were too rigid about public opinion. Rather, the team seemed to be driven by central defender Kim Min-jae’s (Bayern Munich) comment that he would “play with his head” and Son Heung-min’s comment that he should “play with his head like (Kim).”
“I think the coaching staff, support staff, and myself should play with that mindset,” Hwang said. It’s a difficult situation, but I think we need that kind of mindset to overcome it,” he explained.