Veteran forward eager to play with teenager at Women’s World Cup

Korean forwards Park Eun-seon, left, and Casey Phair smile during a training session for the FIFA Women's World Cup at the National Football Center in Paju, Wednesday. Yonhap

Park Eun-seon, Korea’s oldest forward for the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup, said Friday she was high on the future of her youngest teammate, 16-year-old forward Casey Phair.

Phair, born to an American father and a Korean mother in the United States, broke Park’s record as the youngest player to make a World Cup squad for Korea. Park made her World Cup debut at 16 years and nine months in 2003, and Phair just turned 16 on June 29.

When unveiling the roster Tuesday, head coach Colin Bell said he liked Phair’s physicality and her ability to finish with both feet. Park, who had a front-row seat to Phair during training camp for the past three or so weeks, said she couldn’t agree with Bell more. The coach selected Phair because she is good enough to be on the team. Now that I’ve trained with her, I can tell you she is really talented, and I expect big things out of her in the future,” Park said at a press conference at the National Football Center in Paju, some 40 kilometers northwest of Seoul. Korea will play Haiti at 5 p.m. Saturday in Seoul as their final tuneup match before the World Cup kicks off later this month in Australia and New Zealand.

“I think she will put on a good performance at the World Cup,” Park added. “When I played at my first World Cup, I was pretty young too. Even though we didn’t play well, I had a lot of fun just following the lead of my older teammates.”

Park also played at the 2015 World Cup but didn’t make the 2019 team. Now at 36, Park will be playing in her third and likely final World Cup.

“I am grateful for this opportunity to play at another World Cup. I am really looking forward to it,” Park said. “The coach has been taking great care of me, and I want to reward him for having so much trust in me.” Bell’s team will travel to Australia on Monday and begin 토토 training Down Under on Wednesday. Once in Australia, Korea, world No. 17, will face the ninth-ranked Netherlands on July 16 behind closed doors.

The tournament kicks off on July 20, but Korea, paired in Group H, won’t begin their action until July 25, up against 26th-ranked Colombia in Sydney.

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

This is Korea’s fourth appearance at the Women’s World Cup. They were eliminated in the group stage in 2003 and 2019, and reached the round of 16 in 2015.

The tournament is co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, but Korea will only play matches in Australia in the group stage and the knockout phase.

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