SEOUL, 7th June, 2024 (WAM) -- With a resounding win over Singapore on Thursday night, Republic of Korea have already secured a place in the next phase of the Asian qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Korean news agency YONHAP quoted Kim Do-hoon, caretaker manager for the national team, saying on Friday “the job is not yet done for my boys”.
The Korean team returned home from Singapore on Friday morning, some 12 hours after routing Singapore 7-0 in the teams' Group C match in the second round of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) World Cup qualification.
By improving to 13 points, Korea locked down the top spot in their group and thus a ticket to the third round, with one match to spare. Korea will close out the second round by hosting China at Seoul World Cup Stadium on Tuesday, and Kim said beating China would be the icing on the cake.
"Just as we gave our fans joy with the win over Singapore, we would all like to finish this round well on our home pitch," Kim told reporters at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. "It is not just myself. Everyone on the team feels the same."
Kim noted that there is still much at stake for Korea, even with a place in the third round secured. Korea, at world No. 23, will now try to remain among the three best AFC nations in the FIFA rankings and earn one of the top three seeds for the third round.
In the current rankings, Korea are the third-highest AFC team, behind Japan (18th) and Iran (20th), and slightly ahead of Australia (24th). Australia are only 0.03 point back of South Korea. The June rankings will determine the seeding for the third round, which kicks off in September with 18 qualifiers divided into three groups of six. The top three seeds will be kept separated and will each end up in Groups A, B and C.
With Japan and Iran comfortably ahead of Korea and Australia, grabbing the third seed means avoiding Japan or Iran in the same group in the third round. "Our remaining goal is to be one of the top seeds," Kim said.