The national soccer team met with Paulo Bento, the current coach of the UAE national team,
Who won the round of 16 at the Qatar World Cup with the Taegeuk Warriors at the end of 2022.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) said on Sunday that its training schedule overlapped with that of the UAE national team led by Bento during the first training session in Abu Dhabi, New York University. "We met again at the venue for a while after the training session."
In the photos released by KFA, Bento was seen shaking hands with key players who were with him at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, including Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), Jung Woo-young (Stuttgart), and Hwang In-beom (Turbena Zvezda). National goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo (Ulsan HD) was also having a pleasant conversation with Bento. Both Bento and Cho Hyun-woo were smiling.
Fifteen of the 26 members of the national team played with Bento at the Qatar World Cup. Goalkeepers Kim Seung-gyu (Al-Shabab) and Song Bum-keun (Shonan) all played at the Qatar World Cup, while 11 field players, including Kim Young-kwon (Ulsan), Kim Min-jae (Ulsan), Kim Tae-hwan (Ulsan), Kim Jin-soo (Jeonbuk and Lee Sang-soo), Hwang In-beom, Lee Jae-seong (Mintz), Lee Kang-in (PSG), Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Jung Woo-young (Stutgart), Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), and Cho Kyu-sung (Mit Whelan), were also members of the Qatar World Cup. Striker Oh Hyun-kyu (Celtic) accompanied Qatar as only one preliminary member, although he failed to make the final entry.
Bento is considered to be a foreign coach for the Korean national soccer team who wrote the most successful story since Guus Hiddink, who wrote the legend of the semi-finals at the 2002 World Cup Korea-Japan. He has led the Korean national team for about four and a half years from August 2018 to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He is the longest-serving coach of the Korean national team, both Korean and foreigners.
Not all processes were good. At the 2019 UAE Asian Cup, his first international tournament since taking office, Bento was knocked out of the quarterfinals by emerging powerhouse Qatar.
Nevertheless, Bento began to put soccer on the national team aiming for a quick attack change following the ball possession he pursues. In the final qualifying round for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, he led South Korea to advance to the World Cup finals for the 10th consecutive time with his performance (7 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss) that washed away the anxiety of the previous two World Cup qualifiers.
He won the 2022 East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Championship (East Asian Cup), which was held before the World Cup, raising expectations for the World Cup to the fullest.
In Qatar, Bento stuck to his style and this has worked in the world stage. Team Korea, which is in the same group with Uruguay, Ghana, and Portugal, pushed out third-ranked Uruguay from multiple points with one win, one draw and one loss, and led his team to the round of 16 strongest teams at an away World Cup for the second time ever.
When the referee wrapped up the game early just before the end of the 2-3 defeat against Ghana, the Korean players protested fiercely, and in the process, Bento rushed in instead of the players and protested, showing leadership to protect the players.
Bento watched the final match against Portugal from the stands, not from the bench, but with Bento's soccer, which he has been with for four and a half years, South Korea made history by completing a 2-1 dramatic come-from-behind victory.
Although it suffered a 1-4 defeat to the world's strongest Brazilian team in the round of 16, it was worth applause that it was the first round of 16 at the World Cup in 12 years since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Bento's contract was scheduled to expire after the World Cup, but he failed to renew his contract and took the helm. After taking a break for about seven months, he became the head coach of the UAE in July last year. He was listed as a promising candidate for the head coach of the Polish and Ghanaian national teams, and chose to appoint the UAE as a coach, which had never made it to the World Cup finals since the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
Since Bento's appointment, the UAE is enjoying its new heyday. Starting with a landslide 4-1 victory against Costa Rica, a powerhouse in North and Central America, which was his debut as a coach, he has recorded six consecutive wins in A-matches including Kuwait (1-0 win), Lebanon (2-1 win), Nepal (4-0 win), Bahrain (2-0 win), and Kyrgyzstan (1-0 win). If he wins an exhibition match against Oman scheduled on July 7, he can expect to achieve seven consecutive wins.
He will be able to meet the latter in the quarterfinals. Bento's UAE team is in Group C along with Iran, Hong Kong, and Palestine. He is also in Group E with Jordan, Bahrain, and Malaysia. If both UAE and Klinsmann go to the round of 16 best teams as group winners and advance to the quarterfinals, they will have a showdown.
When he was appointed as UAE coach in July, Bento said, "We have important competitions ahead of us. The Asian qualifiers for the 2026 North-China World Cup will start in November. There is an Asian Cup in January next year. Our aspiration is too great," he said, aiming to win the Asian Cup like coach Klinsmann.
Coach Klinsmann vowed to do well at a farewell ceremony held at the Mayfield Hotel in Gangseo-gu, Seoul on the 2nd, the day before he headed to Abu Dhabi, saying, "I will prepare well to lift the Asian Cup with the people and those who are here for the first time in 64 years."
It is also expected that Bento, who was reunited before the tournament, will meet Klinsmann-ho, who is challenging to win the championship for the first time in 64 years, as an enemy.