South Korea’s national soccer team has made an emergency change at right fullback ahead of a World Cup qualifier.
The Korea Football Association announced on Monday that Hwang Mungi-Ki (Gangwon FC) has been named as a replacement for Kim Moon-hwan (Daejeon) due to a left thigh femoral injury.
Hwang Mungi-Ki is a defender who has been with the national team since Hong Myung-bo first named his squad ahead of the third Asian qualifier for the 2026 North 온라인카지노사이트 and Central American World Cup.
He started the first match of the third qualifying round against Palestine (0-0 draw) and was immediately named to the starting lineup. Hwang also started the second match against Oman (3-1).
Fullback is one of Korea’s weakest positions. It has been criticized as a weakness since this year’s Asian Cup.
Recently, Seol Young-woo (Zvezda) has stepped up to the plate and relieved one of the worries. In the third qualifying match against Jordan and the fourth match against Iraq, Seol and Lee Myung-jae (Ulsan) partnered up while Hwang Moon-ki was benched.
Kim Moon-hwan played at right fullback at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Hong Myung-baek hosts Kuwait on Thursday at 11 p.m. in the fifth match of the 2026 North and Central American World Cup Asia Third Qualifying Round. They will follow that up with a match against Palestine on Nov. 19 at 11 p.m. in the sixth round. The Palestine match has been moved to Jordan as Israel and Hamas have been at war in the Gaza Strip for more than a year.