adminWomen’s soccer embarks on a new challenge under Colleen Bell.
The Korea Women’s National Team, led by head coach Colleen Bell, will take on Colombia in a Group H match at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia-New Zealand 2023 on Friday (June 25) at Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
South Korea Women’s Soccer has been preparing for the World Cup with Bell since 2019. She is the first foreign coach in the history of Korean women’s soccer. After four years with Bell, the team is looking to make history at the World Cup. The goal is the quarterfinals. South Korean women’s soccer’s best World Cup finish was the round of 16 in Canada in 2015.
Their first opponent is Colombia. South Korea is ranked 17th in the FIFA rankings, while Colombia is 25th. However, Colombia is a formidable opponent, having finished as Copa America runners-up last year.
On top of that, Colombia is tough.
On July 15, an exhibition match against Ireland (Group B) was abandoned 20 minutes after kickoff. At the time, Ireland explained that they “decided to call off the game due to concerns about further injuries.” They later released the video on social media even though it was a closed trial.
Ji So-yeon (Suwon FC) said, “I think we should be prepared to get beaten up to some extent,” adding, “The Dutch players were very surprised. They told us to be careful against Colombia.”
Cho So-hyun (Tottenham Hotspur) added: “There are referees and VARs. We have the referee and the VAR.”
South Korea will head into the World Cup with four years of preparation under their belts. Since his appointment, Bell has emphasized “high intensity” in fitness training. The training was so intense that the players would say they “lost their appetite”. The team had always struggled with stamina in the second half of games, but they were able to come from behind against Haiti.
“We’ve improved as much as we can given the level of fitness we had at the beginning,” Bell said. “We’ve seen other teams play, and we’ve seen them play with intensity, and we’ve seen them be physically intense. “We have to experience those two things now. That’s what we’re going to experience against Colombia.” 메이저사이트
The importance of the first leg goes without saying. Moreover, the final opponent is Germany, ranked second in the FIFA rankings. That’s why the first and second games against Colombia and Morocco are even more important.