South Korea head coach\u00a0Uli Stielike today has named his squad for the two 2018 World Cup Qualifiers against China and Syria.\u00a0South Korea will travel to China on March 23 and host Syria five days later in Group A play.<\/p>\n
A pair of domestic strikers, Kim Shin-wook of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Lee Jeong-hyeop of Busan IPark were among three forwards named to the squad.\u00a0Jeonbuk are playing in the top-flight K League Classic, while Busan are competing in the second-tier K League Challenge.<\/p>\n
Kim has been one of the top-scoring forwards in the league in recent seasons. He has three goals in 36 international appearances, while Lee emerged as a surprising offensive star in the early days of Stielike’s regime, with five goals in 16 matches.\u00a0Joining Kim and Lee up front is 21-year-old striker Hwang Hee-chan, who plays for FC Red Bull Salzburg.<\/p>\n
South Korea are currently in second place with 10 points after five matches, one behind Iran. Only the top two nations from the group will earn automatic berths at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, while the third place team will have to go through playoffs.<\/p>\n
Compared to the 24-man squad that beat Uzbekistan 2-1 last November, Stielike brought in seven new players. Among the usual suspects not selected this time are Crystal Palace midfielder Lee Chung-yong and Borussia Dortmund defensive back Park Joo-ho. Both players have seen little action with their respective clubs.<\/p>\n
Tottenham Hotspurs’ Son Heung-min, who scored a hat-trick in an FA Cup victory over Millwall on Sunday, was named to the team, but he will not be eligible to play in China because of accumulated yellow cards.<\/p>\n
South Korea full squad:<\/p>\n
Goalkeepers:<\/strong>\u00a0Kwoun Sun-tae\u00a0(Kashima Antlers),\u00a0Kim Seung-gyu\u00a0(Vissel Kobe), Kim Dong-jun (Seongnam FC)<\/p>\n Defenders:<\/strong> Kim Kee-hee (Shanghai Shenhua),\u00a0Jang Hyun-soo\u00a0(Guangzhou R&F),\u00a0Hong Jeong-ho\u00a0(Jiangsu Suning),\u00a0Kwak Tae-hwi\u00a0(FC Seoul),\u00a0Kim Min-hyeok\u00a0(Sagan Tosu),\u00a0Lee Yong\u00a0(Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors),\u00a0Choi Chul-soon\u00a0(Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors),\u00a0Kim Jin-su\u00a0(Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors), Kim Min-woo (Suwon Samsung)<\/p>\n Midfielders:<\/strong>\u00a0Jung Woo-young\u00a0(Chongqing Lifan),\u00a0Koh Myong-jin\u00a0(Al-Rayyan SC),\u00a0Son Heung-min\u00a0(Tottenham Hotspur),\u00a0Ki Sung-yueng (Swansea City),\u00a0Nam Tae-hee (Lekhwiya SC),\u00a0Koo Ja-cheol\u00a0(FC Augsburg),\u00a0Ji Dong-won\u00a0(FC Augsburg), Heo Yong-joon (Jeonnam Dragons)<\/p>\n Forwards:<\/strong>\u00a0Kim Shin-wook (Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors),\u00a0Lee Jeong-hyeop\u00a0(Busan IPark),\u00a0Hwang Hee-chan\u00a0(Red Bull Salzburg)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Korea head coach\u00a0Uli Stielike today has named his squad for the two 2018 World Cup Qualifiers against China and Syria.\u00a0South Korea will travel to China on March 23 and host Syria five days later in Group A play. A pair of domestic strikers, Kim Shin-wook of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Lee Jeong-hyeop of Busan IPark were among three forwards named to the squad.\u00a0Jeonbuk are playing in the top-flight K League Classic, while Busan are competing in the second-tier K League Challenge. Kim has been one of the top-scoring forwards in the league in recent seasons. He has three goals in 36 international appearances, while Lee emerged as a surprising … Continue reading “South Korea announce 24-man squad for World Cup qualifiers”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":1946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,33],"tags":[95,70,485,332],"class_list":["post-1945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-world-cup","category-south-korea","tag-slider","tag-south-korea","tag-uli-stielike","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}