Taeguk Warriors arrive in Austria for World Cup training

The Korean men’s national football team has arrived at its training camp in Leogang, Austria, to gear up for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

The Taeguk Warriors, led by head coach Shin Tae-yong, had a 12-hour flight from Incheon to Wien and took a four-hour bus ride to Leogang on Sunday. Korea will train in the popular ski resort town until they fly to Saint Petersburg, Russia, where their World Cup base camp is located, on June 12.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) decided to set up Korea’s training camp in Leogang as the city’s environment and weather resemble that of their competition venues during the Russia World Cup.

Korea is playing in their ninth consecutive World Cup but will be the underdogs in all their group matches. Across all World Cup tournaments, Korea have made it out of the group stage twice, where they made a historic march to the semifinals at the 2002 World Cup, which they co-hosted with Japan, and reached the round of 16 at the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Korea is assigned to Group F and will first face Sweden in Nizhny Novgorod on June 18 and then take on Mexico in Rostov-on-Don on June 23. Korea will play against defending champions Germany in Kazan on June 27.

“Leogang has similar conditions to Neustift near Innsbruck, a training camp for the 2010 World Cup, where Korea reached the round of 16,” a KFA official said. “It’s the best place to train before going to Russia.”

During their stay in Austria, Korea will have two World Cup warm-up matches. Shin’s side will take on Bolivia on Thursday and Senegal on June 11. Before heading to Austria, the team played two friendly matches at home, in which they had a 3-2 win against Honduras on May 28 and a 3-1 loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday.

Korea will use a hotel that is only five minutes away from the team’s training ground.

Yonhap