South Korea's national soccer team Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), who wore the captain's armband on behalf of Son Heung-min (Tottenham), who was excluded from the call-up due to injury, emphasized the importance of communication.메이저놀이터
Kim Min-jae attended a press conference at Yongin Mir Stadium ahead of the home game of Group B of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA North-China World Cup against Iraq on the 14th.
He called the match against Iraq a "six-point game" and stressed, "It's a game against the second place in the group at home, so we have to bring the result unconditionally."
Regarding taking over as captain on behalf of Son Heung-min, he said, "I'm not motivated by saying special things to the players as a temporary captain," adding, "It's important to talk about what went wrong in today's last training session and communicate with all the players."
"I'm seven to eight years apart from young players," he said. "We have to connect and communicate well with each other about the inconvenience. The atmosphere is created by the players inside, but everyone is trying to make the atmosphere good."
The top contender in the match against Iraq is "striker" Hussein. Hussein has scored 28 goals in 77 A-match games, and he competed for top scorer with five goals in four matches through the round of 16 at the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup.
"I met (Husein) at the stadium two or three times," Kim Min-jae said. "He is a strong player with strengths in air ball and right to provide. I think we should pay more attention to the right to provide. I will talk to players who have no experience with Hussein and ask them to cover what they want to cover and strengthen them," he said.
Team Korea will play its fourth Group B match against Iraq at 8 p.m. on Tuesday in the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup North-China. Iraq is currently ranked second in Group B (seven points, plus goal difference +2). It is the same with Korea (seven points, plus goal difference +4), which ranks first in Group B, but is lagging behind in goal difference.