The training was delayed from the time planned by Hong Myung-bo due to a doping test caught out of the blue.
Coach Hong Myung-bo, who led the Korean national team, prepared for the fourth Group B match of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup North-China at Mir Stadium in Yongin on Saturday afternoon. As South Korea and Iraq are competing to lead the group with seven points each, the latest result will likely be a watershed moment for the team’s advance to the World Cup finals.
Recognizing the importance of the match against Iraq, the Korean team returned to Korea via a chartered plane right after the away match in Jordan. Long-distance travel is inevitable, but the plan was made to reduce fatigue as much as possible. Focusing on the recovery of the players, the team also gave the players a night off on the day they returned home, and did its best to refresh them.
Team Hong headed to Yongin, where the showdown took place a day before the match. The grass at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, which is always used as its home ground, was so broken that it couldn’t handle the World Cup qualifying round that it was hurriedly changed to Yongin. The national team has also begun training to adapt itself to the grass.
Fortunately, he does not blame the grass. “I don’t think there will be any problems in the game,” Hong said after checking the grass at the Mir Stadium. “It is different from the grass that we have played since our players are mostly in Europe. We are in the same position as the away team, but we will try to adapt quickly.”
Coach Hong Myung-bo was about to accelerate his training, but his plan fell through due to an unexpected doping test. Initially, the national team decided to hold a press conference at 3:30 p.m. with the coach and captain seated and then conduct the final training session from 4 p.m. Since the training was to be performed as the last step, the team had to pay attention to the 꽁머니 media as it only revealed the first 15 minutes.
However, players did not show up at the training site even after 4 p.m. It was only 4:39 p.m., a whopping 39 minutes later, when 26 players gathered to lightly start running.
The drill was delayed due to an unexpected doping test. As the Korea Anti-Doping Agency (KADA) requested an inspection of eight people named Hong Myung-bo, the drill was delayed.
“The doping test will be conducted unexpectedly. The test was notified an hour before the training session, and the test will be conducted for eight players,” a KFA source said. “Some players conducted the test before the training session. However, for those players who did not doping in a short period of time, we agreed to conduct the test after training.”
Coach Hong Myung-bo reportedly came forward to clean up the situation. “Doping could not wait due to the training session. Coach Hong Myung-bo discussed with KADA in person and decided to conduct some doping tests after training,” a KFA source said. “In the past, we conducted doping tests on the day of the match. It is always conducted without warning, and this is the first time for the current national team since Coach Hong Myung-bo took the helm.”
Doping is bound to be physically and mentally challenging. Moreover, as a large number of athletes are subject to examination, it will be delayed from the usual training sessions, which will deal a blow to athletes who value rhythm.
Hong’s routine is to have dinner at 6 p.m. after training, but his dinner was naturally postponed due to the delayed training. “It is also a concern that we need to take care of our physical condition on the eve of the game,” the official added.