▲ South Korea head coach Lee Min-sung and coaching staff salute the national flag prior to their Group D opening match against Qatar at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games men's football tournament, held at the Mizuho Park Rugby Stadium in Nagoya, Japan, on September 15.
South Korea's under-23 men's national football team, competing in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, is experiencing repeated inconveniences due to poor management by the tournament's organizing committee.
Having defeated Qatar 4-1 in their Group D opening match yesterday (September 15), the national team set out for a recovery training session today, but faced schedule disruptions after no transport vehicle was dispatched for the trip to the training ground.
As a result, the team scrambled to find alternative transportation from early in the morning, and instead of starting training at 10:30 AM as originally planned, they barely managed to arrive at the site at 10:50 AM.
This is not the first time our national team has suffered due to sloppy transportation support.
Yesterday, on the day of the match against Qatar, the bus driver heading to the stadium did not properly know the destination and headed to the wrong baseball stadium in an absurd incident.
The team was supposed to go to the rugby stadium hosting football matches within Mizuho Park, but because the driver headed to a nearby baseball stadium with the squad on board, the team arrived at the venue 30 minutes later than scheduled.
Mizuho Park is a complex featuring multiple sports facilities, including the main stadium where the opening ceremony of this Asian Games will be held.
However, no Asian Games matches are held at all at the baseball stadium where the national team bus headed.
The baseball events for this tournament are taking place in another city within Aichi Prefecture, not Nagoya.
Earlier on September 14, head coach Lee Min-sung and national team officials waited to attend an official press conference, but the assigned vehicle failed to arrive at the accommodation, causing them to arrive late for the event.
An official from the Korea Football Association expressed strong regret, saying, "Minor issues surrounding vehicle dispatch and operation are continuously occurring during every training session and official event transfer throughout the tournament," adding, "This is a situation commonly experienced by all teams currently participating in the competition, not just us."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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