Korea will be full strength when it takes on Austria, with chance to put recent poor showing in rear view

Korea will face Austria in their next men's football friendly match at full strength, with a couple of key attackers ready to roll after being limited in their previous contest, head coach Hong Myung-bo said.

Korea and Austria are scheduled to square off at Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna for a pre-World Cup friendly, with the kickoff set at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday local time, or 3:45 a.m. Wednesday in Korea. At his prematch press conference at the stadium on Monday, Hong said captain Son Heung-min and midfielder Lee Kang-in will both be available from the start.

Korea lost to Ivory Coast 4-0 near London on Saturday with Son and Lee both getting subbed on in the second half. Son had been under the weather last week while Lee had been dealing with effects of a recent ankle injury.

“In our previous match, those players were not in good enough physical condition to start, and we had to scale back their minutes,” Hong said. “For our next match, I think every player will be able to play.”

Hong noted that Austria, three spots below Korea at No. 25 in the FIFA rankings, are capable of applying “organized, quick pressure” on opponents.

“We cannot afford to lose possession of the ball in dangerous areas,” Hong said. “And when we do lose the ball, we have to be able to push right back with pressure.”

With Korea trying to bounce back from a deflating loss just days ago, Hong said his team already had some experience in that regard.

Korea got embarrassed by Brazil in a 5-0 loss at home in a friendly match on Oct. 10 last year, but then bounced back to defeat Paraguay 2-0 four days later in a strong performance.

“After the Brazil match, we already ran simulations on how we could overcome similar adversity at the World Cup,” Hong said. “Our players bounced back wisely and won the next match. This is a difficult situation where we have to play another match after just a couple of days, but I believe this will help us grow mentally.”

Hong also hinted at sticking to his back-three formation, despite his defenders' difficulty containing Ivory Coast in the earlier loss.

“We aren't going to deviate much from what we've been doing,” the coach said. “We haven't had enough time to prepare something new after the previous match. We have to keep trying to improve things we've been working on.”

Yonhap

Click here to read article