South Korea will play a couple of home friendlies over the next week against two sides that featured at the 2018 World Cup; Uruguay and Panama. These games serve as a warmup for the Asian Cup which takes place at the beginning of 2019 in the UAE.
Previews and Predictions below;
South Korea vs. Uruguay – Preview + Prediction
South Korea vs. Uruguay
International Friendly
Seoul World Cup Stadium (South Korea)
Friday October 12th – 8pm Kick Off (Local Time)
The first of the two upcoming friendlies for South Korea is against World Cup Quarter Finalists Uruguay. Uruguay performed well at the world cup losing to eventual winners France. They beat Mexico 4-1 in September and will prove a tough task for South Korea. The Uruguay squad is strong with Edinson Cavani and Diego Godin both making the trip to East Asia. But Korea played solidly beating Costa Rica and drawing with Chile only a month ago, and so this should be a close game.
Personally I see this being played at a pretty good pace boosted by 50,000+ fans at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. Due to the atmosphere I see Korea holding on for a draw, with Uruguay scored second early in the second half and Korea taking the lead midway into the first.
Prediction: South Korea 1 – 1 Uruguay
South Korea vs. Panama – Preview + Prediction
South Korea vs. Panama
International Friendly
Cheonan Stadium (South Korea)
Tuesday October 16th – 8pm Kick Off (Local Time)
Of course this game maybe slightly affected by the previous games with Korea hosting Uruguay and Panama playing over in Japan. But overall I don’t see that being so much of a factor. This is the slightly easier of the two games and Korea might ring the changes a little and play a few fringe players and maybe hand a few youngsters debuts. Panama lost all of their games during the world cup and although not a weak side, they aren’t boosting a huge number of star players. However their squad for this game in experienced with plenty of them holding over 20 caps, and most play outside of Panama.
Overall Panama won’t just roll over, but I see Korea recording a solid victory to send the local fans home happy.
Prediction: South Korea 2 – 0 Panama
Finally
Any thoughts, comments or questions. Feel free to comment below or message me via Twitter.
Modern Seoul 