Korea coach looking to identify weaknesses in pre-Women’s World Cup tuneup

Colin Bell, head coach of the Korean women's national football team, speaks at a press conference at the National Football Center in Paju, Friday. Yonhap

Korea head coach Colin Bell said Friday he hopes to identify areas for improvement in an upcoming tuneup match for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Korea will host Haiti at 5 p.m. Saturday at Seoul World Cup Stadium for their final match at home before the big tournament. Bell’s team will travel to Australia on Monday and begin training Down Under Wednesday. Once in Australia, Korea, world No. 17, will face the ninth-ranked Netherlands on July 16 behind closed doors.

“I think it would be a good test for both of us actually with our strengths and weaknesses,” Bell said at a press conference at the National Football Center in Paju, 40 kilometers northwest of Seoul. Haiti are also bound for the World Cup. “So obviously, we’re looking for 스포츠 certain things we want to see when we’re in possession and when we’re out of possession,” Bell continued. “But we also have to analyze the moments where Haiti can maybe exploit certain areas with the speed that they have. So we then need to obviously address that for the next couple of weeks.”

The World Cup kicks off on July 20. Playing out of Group H, Korea’s first match is against 26th-ranked Colombia on July 25 in Sydney.

Korea will then take on No. 72 Morocco in Adelaide on July 30 and No. 2 Germany in Brisbane on Aug. 3.

Haiti, ranked 53rd, will play England, Denmark and China in Group D. “I just hope we can really give the fans something to cheer about and that will be our aim tomorrow,” Bell said. “Of course, we want to have a good performance and get a good result.”

Bell said he has always appreciated “fantastic” support from fans at home, but also cautioned against high expectations for Saturday’s match, since it will merely be a tuneup for the games that will matter later this month.

“This game has to be understood in the context that it’s being played. It’s a pretournament match,” Bell said. “We don’t want to be peaking top form tomorrow. We want to be in top form on the 25th of July.”

Bell announced his 23-player squad Wednesday, including a half-Korean teenager Casey Phair. Bell spoke highly of the 16-year-old forward’s physicality and skills, but demurred when asked if Phair will see action Saturday.

“Right now, I don’t know,” Bell said in Korean in response to the question on Phair. “We will see how the match plays out tomorrow.”

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