Korea to face Salah-less Egypt in final June friendly

The Korean national football team trains at the National Football Center in Paju, Gyeonggi on Sunday. [YONHAP]

The Korean national football team will take on Egypt in the final of four friendlies on Tuesday, but an unspecified injury means captain Mohamed Salah will have to sit out the highly-anticipated showdown with Premier League rival Son Heung-min.

The Korea Football Association announced on Saturday that Liverpool's Salah, who shared the 2021-22 Premier League Golden Boot with Tottenham Hotspur's Son, did not travel to Korea with the Egyptian national team due to an injury.

Salah has been struggling with an injury for the last few weeks, with reports that Liverpool had requested he receive an X-ray before playing for Egypt against Guinea in the Africa Cup of Nations on June 5. Salah reportedly rejected the request and played the full 90 minutes, only receiving medical attention after the game.

Salah was excluded from the squad after the Guinea game, missing Egypt's 2-0 loss to Ethiopia on June 9 and sitting out the trip to Korea.

The Korea-Egypt friendly was expected to be a must-watch game purely because it would have pitted Premier League Golden Boot winners Son of Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool's Salah against each other.

With 23 goals scored throughout the 2021-22 Premier League season, Son and Salah split the league's top-scorer award. Although they regularly face off in the Premier League, the two have never had the chance to play each other with their respective national teams.

At the club level, Son and Salah's two clashes this season both ended in draws: 2-2 on Dec. 19 last year and 1-1 on May 7. Son scored for Tottenham in both games while Salah remained quiet.

Although Salah won't be attending, Tuesday's game should still be a good opportunity for the Taeguk Warriors.

Egypt and Korea have very little head-to-head history. The two sides last faced off in 2005, when Egypt won 1-0. A lot has changed over the intervening 17 years, and Korea now outranks Egypt on the FIFA World Ranking, at No. 29 to Egypt's No. 32.

While the game acts as a warm up for Korea ahead of the 2022 Qatar World Cup in November, Egypt were unable to secure a spot at the global tournament. Despite being one of the top-ranked teams from the Confederation of African Football, Egypt were knocked out of the World Cup qualifiers after losing to Senegal on penalties.

Korea enters the game at the tail-end of a very up-and-down run of friendlies that most recently saw the national team struggle to a draw in what should have been a reasonably easy game against world No. 50 Paraguay.

Facing the lower-ranked South American side, head coach Paulo Bento opted to bench a couple of the more experienced Taeguk Warriors, feeling a generally younger squad.

The gamble very nearly didn't pay off, with Korea taking the best part of an hour to adapt to Paraguay's staunch defense and rapid counterattacks. It was only thanks to a perfectly executed Son free kick and a good use of substitutes that the Taeguk Warriors were able to avoid a loss.

The Paraguay game came on the back of a 2-0 win over world No. 28 Chile that saw the Korean team gel successfully and effectively put together some good attacks. Defense was still a bit of an issue in that game, but the absence of regular center back Kim Min-jae goes some way toward explaining that problem.

Prior to the Chile game, Korea took a tough 5-1 loss to world No. 1 Brazil. While the loss was expected, the Taeguk Warriors fell apart in the second half, allowing Brazil to completely seize the momentum of the game.

Bento will be looking to tap back into the momentum that carried Korea past Chile last week when they face Egypt on Tuesday.

With Salah out of action, Bento could consider easing up the pressure on captain Son.

As with most Korea fixtures in recent years, Son has been crucial in all three games so far. The Spurs forward looked visibly exhausted throughout the Paraguay game — unsurprising, considering he is the only of Korea's European stars to have played at least 90 minutes in all three friendlies.

Son's performance can often determine Korea's fate in a match, especially as a number of the younger attackers still seemed inclined to just pass the ball to the captain at every opportunity. But in order to ensure that he can continue to play that crucial role, mixing up the offensive and allowing the Spurs star to get some rest every now and then can only benefit Korea.

The Taeguk Warriors will take on Egypt at 8 p.m. at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Mapo District, western Seoul.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]