South Korea Aims for Strong Start Against Czechia in World Cup Opener

ZAPOPAN, Mexico, June 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korean players and coaches have long talked about the importance of winning the first match at this year's FIFA World Cup, stressing how taking care of business from the get-go will set the tone for the rest of the way.

That important first match is now here, and it's now time for the Taegeuk Warriors to walk the walk.

South Korea and Czechia will begin their Group A play at Estadio Guadalajara at 8 p.m. Thursday (local time), or 11 a.m. Friday (Korean time).

South Korea will be playing in their 11th consecutive World Cup, while Czechia's previous World Cup appearance came in 2006.

The two countries last met in a friendly in June 2016 -- so long ago that only two South Korean players from that day, Son Heung-min and Lee Jae-sung, are still with the national team. For the Czechs, Vladimir Darida is the only returnee from 10 years ago.

With the tournament having been expanded from 32 to 48 nations, the top two teams from each of the 12 groups and the eight best third-place nations will progress to the knockout stage of 32. The path to the knockout phase has widened and collecting three points at the onset will put any team in a great position to advance to the round of 32.

South Korea have made the knockouts three times -- in 2002, 2010 and 2022 -- and on all three occasions, they either won their first match or had a draw to begin the group stage.

Merely reaching the round of 32 isn't the objective for South Korea. Head coach Hong Myung-bo has said he wants the team to reach the knockouts in the best position possible, ideally as the group winner, so that they can go deeper into the tournament.

If they win the group, South Korea will face a No. 3 seed from another group in the round of 32. With Mexico being favored to win Group A as one of the three co-hosts, South Korea will likely fight for No. 2 seed. If they finish as the runner-up, they will face the Group B runner-up in the round of 32.

Group B is considered one of the softer groups, with Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar and Switzerland.

If South Korea sneak into the knockouts as No. 3 seed, they are guaranteed to meet a group winner in their first knockout match.

At No. 25 in the latest FIFA rankings, South Korea will be favored on paper over 41st-ranked Czechia. South Korea had a far easier path through the Asian qualification. Czechia had to beat Denmark on penalties in their European playoff match to grab the final remaining spot in Group A.

But South Korea can ill afford to take the European side lightly, not when their defense has had problems against far weaker opponents.

The Czechs attack will be led by Bayer Leverkusen striker Patrik Schick. He has netted 26 goals in 53 international matches and has been among the top goal scorers in the Bundesliga in recent years. He finished second in goals in the top German league in 2021-2022 and 2024-2025 seasons, and fourth in the 2025-2026 campaign.

An agile forward who can play with his back to the net, Schick can also be an aerial threat at 191 centimeters.

Another player listed at 191 cm, center back Ladislav Krejci, can also be dangerous in set pieces. South Korean winger Hwang Hee-chan, Krejci's teammate at Wolverhampton Wanderers, called Krejci "a smart player, someone that coaches and teammates lean on so much" and said South Korea must keep an eye on the 27-year-old defender.

In all, Czechia have eight outfield players at 190 cm or taller while South Korea have two. Both are defenders, Kim Min-jae and Lee Han-beom, and they will be tasked with keeping the lanky Czechs at bay.

On offense, South Korea will once again look to captain Son Heung-min to do the heavy lifting. Son has scored three goals in his World Cup career, tied with former stars Ahn Jung-hwan and Park Ji-sung for most by a South Korean player.

Both Son and goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu are poised to join Hong, former forward Hwang Sun-hong and ex-goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae as the only South Koreans to play in four World Cups.

South Korea will try to bank on their weeks of altitude training. With two of their three Group A matches at Estadio Guadalajara, some 1,500 meters above sea level, South Korea trained in Salt Lake City, also a high city in Utah, for about three weeks to get acclimated to playing in thin air. That their base camp is also near Guadalajara could work to South Korea's advantage, while Czechia have set up shop in Texas.

Mother Nature may also wreak havoc on the match, with rain and scattered thunderstorms expected Thursday evening.