Womens Soccer Attempts to Advance to the Olympics
Women"s soccer attempts to advance to the Olympics for the first time in Asian qualifiers starting on the 26th
North Korea, China and ‘Group of Death’… If you advance to the semifinals, the final qualifying round will be held in February 2024.
The Korean women"s soccer team, led by coach Colin Bell (England), is taking on the challenge of advancing to the Olympic finals for the first time in history.
The Korean women"s soccer team will participate in the second round of the Asian region qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics to be held in Xiamen, Fujian Province, China, starting on the 26th.
The second preliminary round will be divided into three groups, and South Korea, ranked 20th in the FIFA rankings, will be placed in Group B along with China (15th), Thailand (46th), and North Korea.
Group A includes Australia (11th), Taiwan (38th), Philippines (44th), and Iran (63rd), while Group C includes Japan (8th), Vietnam (34th), Uzbekistan (50th), and India (61st). Above) c.
The first place in each group advances directly to the semifinals, and the team with the best performance among the second place countries in each group joins the semifinals.
The two countries that win the semifinals will then advance to the finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Korean women"s soccer, which has yet to participate in the Olympic finals, must face tough competition in Group B, also known as the "Group of Death."
This is because North Korea, which has no international rankings and has no international rankings other than the recent silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games, is burdensome.
Australia is expected to take first place in Group A, and Japan is expected to take first place in Group C relatively easily, while fierce competition is expected between South Korea, China, and North Korea in Group B.
South Korea, which will play its first match against Thailand on the 26th, will then face North Korea on the 29th and China on November 1st.
This is the third challenge this year for Korean women"s soccer led by Coach Bell.
Belho, who entered the FIFA Women"s World Cup in August with the goal of reaching the quarterfinals for the first time in history, was eliminated in the group stage, and entered Hangzhou, China in September, shouting "Now it"s the Asian Games", but lost 1-4 to North Korea in the quarterfinals.
I didn"t even make it to the semifinals.
It has been 25 years since the 1998 Bangkok Games that Korean women"s soccer failed to advance to the semifinals of the Asian Games.
For Belho, who headed to China again shouting, ‘Now it’s the Olympics,’ this Olympic qualifier is her last chance to restore her honor.
The Korea Football Association extended the contract with coach Bell until December 2024 in April this year, but if the team fails to advance to the Olympic finals, there will be virtually no competitions in 2024.
The final quarterfinals tournament, in which teams that reached the semifinals in this second preliminary round will compete, will be held in February 2024.
Against North Korea, South Korea has met 13 times over the past 18 years since its 1-0 win in the East Asian Cup in August 2005, and has not won once with 2 draws and 11 losses.
Their record against North Korea is 1 win, 3 draws, and 16 losses, and their one-sided inferiority continues.
Since winning 1-0 in the 2015 East Asian Cup, they have faced China 9 times over the past 8 years, recording 3 draws and 6 losses.
Their record against opponents is 5 wins, 7 draws, and 29 losses.
In the second game against China in the final qualifying round for the Tokyo Olympics in April 2021, they took a 2-0 lead in the first half, boosting their chances of advancing to the Olympic finals for the first time, but failing to keep the lead remains a disappointing result even now.
Also, in the Asian Cup final in February last year, they led 2-0 to China in the first half, but lost 2-3.
North Korea, which lost 1-4 in the Asian Games, must overcome the barriers of China, which has the home ground advantage, to open the way to Paris.
Even if they pass the second round of qualifying, a literal "thorny path" awaits the Korean women"s soccer team as they may face Australia or Japan in the semifinals in February 2024.
The Korean women"s soccer team, including Ji So-yeon (Suwon FC) and rookie Casey Eugene Pair, born in June 2007, has been convened and trained at the National Team Training Center (NFC) in Paju, Gyeonggi-do since the 16th and will depart for China on the afternoon of the 23rd.