Korea to play Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador in World Cup tuneups

Korea will play two non-World Cup teams in their final tuneup matches for the big tournament, the national football federation announced Tuesday.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) said South Korea, world No. 25, will face No. 100 Trinidad and Tobago at 7 p.m. on May 30 at BYU South Field in Provo, Utah, on the campus of Brigham Young University, and then face 102nd-ranked El Salvador at 7 p.m. on June 3 at the same venue.

The kickoff for both matches in Korean time will be 10 a.m. May 31 and 10 a.m. June 4.

Korea's head coach Hong Myung-bo will announce his World Cup squad Saturday in Seoul and will depart for Salt Lake City, Utah, for pre-World Cup training camp two days later.

El Salvador's football federation had already announced last Tuesday that their national team will play Korea, and the KFA released further details on the venue and start time this week.

Neither of the Korean opponents qualified for the upcoming FIFA World Cup. Korea's only previous meeting against Trinidad and Tobago resulted in a 1-1 draw on July 14, 2004, in Seoul. Korea also played El Salvador to a 1-1 draw in their only meeting so far on June 20, 2023, in the central city of Daejeon.

The KFA decided to set up camp in Salt Lake City for altitude training ahead of the World Cup, with Korea scheduled to play two of their three Group A matches in Guadalajara, about 1,500 meters above sea level.

"With the two tuneup matches before traveling to Mexico, we will try to help our players get acclimated to the high altitude and also shore up our tactics," the KFA said.

Once in Mexico, Korea's base camp for the group stage will be Guadalajara. Hong's team is scheduled to arrive there on June 5, six days before their tournament opener against Czechia.

Korea will then play Mexico, one of three co-host countries, on June 18 and then South Africa on June 24.

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