Clinsmanho once again emphasized his goal of winning the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup for the first time in 64 years.

The South Korean men's national soccer team, led by head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, held an opening ceremony at the 2023 Korea Football Association (KFA) Awards held at the Mayfield Hotel in Gangseo-gu, Seoul on the 2nd and expressed its determination for the 2023 AFC Qatar Asian Cup (Jan. 12 to Feb. 10).

"I will head to Qatar with full energy and trust. As much as I have prepared well, I will come back with good results in six weeks. I will definitely lift the Asian Cup with the Korean people for the first time in 64 years," Klinsmann said.

South Korea won its first competition in Hong Kong in 1956 and its second in Korea in 1960, but it has not reached the top since then.

"Personally, I like the word 'challenge.' This Qatar Asian Cup is not just a challenge for our national team, but a challenge that has been going on for 64 years. I will definitely come back with the trophy," said Lee Jae-sung, center midfielder.

At 11:40 p.m. on the same day, the national team left Incheon International Airport for Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the site of its off-season training.

Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur) and Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), who are playing in Europe, will join the team in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Lee Kang-in (Saint-Germain in Paris) will join the team after the final match against Toulouse at the Trope de Champaign (Super Cup in France) on Tuesday. 스포츠토토

The national team will play a final warm-up match against Iraq on June 6 and move to Qatar, the site of the final match, on June 10.

One of Korea's competitors is Japan, which ranks 17th in the FIFA rankings among the participating countries. Korea ranks 23rd, third after Japan and Iran (21st). The Japanese national team has not missed a single victory in the recent nine matches.

Japan unveiled Tuesday its entry that filled 20 of its 26 players with European leagues. Takefusa Kubo of Real Sociedad, who is known to be close to Lee Kang-in, Endo Wataru of Liverpool, Takehiro Tomiyasu of Arsenal, and Kaoru Mitoma of Brighton have been called up.