The Korean national football team received the top seed (Port 1) at the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. It is the second time in a row that Korea has been in pot 1 ahead of the group stage of the Asian Cup, following the 2019 tournament.
According to the AFC Asian Cup pot allocation announced by the AFC on the 7th, Korea was in the first pot along with host country Qatar, Japan, Iran, Australia and Saudi Arabia. Pots were divided into 4 teams (Pots 1 to 4) of 6 teams according to the FIFA rankings in April. Hosts Qatar automatically belonged to Pot 1.
Korea ranked 27th in the FIFA rankings in April, ranking third in Asia following Japan (20th) and Iran (24th). Australia (29th) and Saudi Arabia (54th) also belonged to Pot 1. Teams belonging to the same pot do not meet in the group stage.
It is the second time after the 2019 tournament that Korea belongs to pot 1 and participates in the group stage draw. At the time of the 2019 tournament, 24 countries were divided into 4 pots like this one, and at that time, Korea was ranked 4th in Asia following Iran, Australia and Japan and belonged to pot 1. On the other hand, in the 2015 tournament in which 16 countries participated, 4 teams belonged to each pot, and were pushed to pot 2 by hosts Australia, Iran, Japan and Uzbekistan.
Iraq (67th in the FIFA rankings), UAE (72nd in the UAE), Oman (73rd), Uzbekistan (74th), China (81st) and Jordan (84th) belonged to Port 2 of this tournament. It is followed by Bahrain (85th) and Syria (90th) Palestine (93rd) Vietnam (95th) Kyrgyzstan (96th) Lebanon (99th) Port 3, India (101st) and Tajikistan (109th) Thailand ( 114th) Malaysia (138th) Hong Kong (147th) and Indonesia (149th) were each in pot 4.
The draw for the main round will be held on May 11 at 8:00 pm (Korean time) at the Katara Opera House in Doha, Qatar. One team from each pot from pots 1 to 4 will be drawn into the same group. The group stage is divided into 6 groups of 4 teams, and the top 4 teams among the 1st and 2nd places in each group and the 3rd place in each group advance to the round of 16. Due to China’s abandonment of the hosting rights, the tournament, which will be held in Qatar, will open on January 12 next year and the final will be held on February 10. 메이저놀이터
Meanwhile, coach Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany) set the goal of winning the Asian Cup immediately after taking office as head coach of the Korean national team. Korea reached the top of the tournament in 1956 and 1960, but has never won the championship since. Through this tournament, Korea will challenge to win the championship for the first time in 64 years.