After 2 missed calls, veteran defender eager for World Cup debut

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, June 12 (Yonhap) -- Over his international career that started in 2013, South Korean left back Kim Jin-su has accumulated 56 caps. None of that has come in World Cup matches, though, and Kim would like to change that this year.

Kim was left off the national team for each of the past two World Cups with injuries, an unfortunate development for the skilled fullback.

On Sunday, on the eve of his 30th birthday, Kim said making the World Cup squad for this fall is "a personal challenge."

"I've talked to a lot of the guys, older and younger, who've been to World Cups, and I've been thinking about how I should prepare myself for the tournament," Kim said at an online press conference from the National Football Center in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, where South Korean players have been training for their friendly match against Egypt on Tuesday.

"I want to be of at least a little help in pushing the team to great heights," Kim added. "To do that, I've got to stay healthy. Since I missed the past two World Cups with injuries, my biggest goal this year is not to get hurt and to maintain good form."

The Egypt match will be the fourth and final friendly for South Korea this month, as they're building up for the World Cup kicking off in Qatar in November. Kim missed the first two matches -- a 5-1 loss to Brazil on June 2 and a 2-0 win over Chile last Monday -- while nursing a hamstring injury. He then got the start in a 2-2 draw against Paraguay on Friday.

After all three contests, South Korea's defense came under fire for its shaky play. Kim, who admitted he struggled with conditioning in early moments of the Paraguay match, said South Korea will have to cut down on "easy mistakes."

"We sometimes lost the ball trying to mount an attack, and those errors led to counterattack opportunities for our opponents," Kim said. "We realize how important defense is, and how we have to stabilize things at the back to hold the entire team together. I think those three matches will end up being a great learning experience for us."

Through Paraguay came in ranked just 50th in the world, 21 spots below South Korea, they gave the hosts everything they could handle, taking a 2-0 lead before allowing two second-half goals to settle for a draw. South Korea scheduled that match ostensibly because Paraguay play in a similar style as one of South Korea's World Cup opponents, Uruguay.

Kim observed that Paraguay were "a well-organized team with some skilled players."

"We have to be sharper than this at the World Cup," Kim added. "We have to pay more attention to detail and improve on some finer points of the game."

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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