South Korea Opens the Asian Games Against Their Old Coach
Shin Sang-woo says South Korea's women want to change the color of their Asian Games medal, and when a reporter asked if that meant gold, his answer was one word: yes, The Korea Times reported this month. Their first opponent on Monday is coached by the man Shin replaced.
Colin Bell ran South Korea's women's program from October 2019 to June 2024, when the Korea Football Association ended the deal by mutual consent, citing a need for "a change to take the next step." His record was solid. He finished with 24 wins, 10 draws, 15 losses across 49 matches. He'd also spent the 2023 World Cup publicly picking apart the domestic WK League's lack of relegation, calling its playoff system "nonsensical." Shin Sang-woo took over, and Bell resurfaced this year in charge of Myanmar, ranked 55th in the world to South Korea's 19th. Nobody expects Myanmar to actually win Monday's match in Osaka. The story is that South Korea's opening kickoff at the tournament it cares about most is against the coach it let go.
Shin's team plays three group games: Myanmar on the 14th and Bangladesh on the 17th, both in Osaka, then North Korea on the 21st in Fukuroi, a city about 100 kilometers east of Nagoya.
Bell's Old Squad, Running Someone Else's System Now
South Korea's final training camp at the Korea Football Park in Cheonan drew 20 of the 23 named players from the WK League, SBS reported. It's the exact league Bell was still needling on his way out the door.
Facing him doesn't seem to rattle Shin's squad, at least not publicly. Ji So-yun, the team's all-time leader in caps and goals, was asked what it's like playing a coach who knows this group's habits as well as anyone on the opposing bench. She skipped the sentiment and kept her answer on the football.
The Real Deadline Is September 21, Not the 14th
Three straight bronze medals (2010, 2014, 2018) is a solid record for most countries at this event. It's a genuine source of frustration here, because South Korea has never gotten past the team standing in its way this time. They lost to North Korea in the quarterfinals at the last Asian Games, Korea Herald noted, and the head-to-head since 2005 reads one win, four draws, sixteen losses. I added that up twice because it looked wrong the first time. It isn't. One win, in August 2005, and nothing since.
North Korea arrives ranked 11th in the world, comfortably the strongest side in Group F. Shin's own math is straightforward. Finish top of the group and South Korea stays in Fukuroi instead of traveling again for the quarterfinal. Win the first two matches cleanly, and September 21 decides more than pride.
Ji So-yun Is Still the Name on the Team Sheet
At 35, Ji So-yun holds South Korea's all-time records for both caps (176) and goals (75), more of each than any other South Korean international, man or woman. She wears No. 10 here the way she does for her club, Suwon FC, and she's flanked by a genuinely veteran core: Kim Hye-ri, 36, and Jang Sel-gi, 32, both well past the age most federations bother calling up for a youth tournament. Women's Asian Games football carries no age cap, so Shin built this squad around who's good enough.
The guard hasn't turned over the way it has on the men's side. Ji made her senior debut back in 2006, and two decades later she's still the first name written down.
Where International Fans Can Actually Watch This
As of this week there's no confirmed English-language broadcast partner for Aichi-Nagoya 2026 in the US or UK. Sony Sports Network holds the rights across India and the wider subcontinent, streaming on Sony LIV. Thailand has AIS PLAY. Inside Japan, TBS is the official broadcaster, on air and across its digital platforms. Outside those markets, the Asian Games' own digital channels and YouTube page are the closest thing to a reliable fallback for highlights and updates — no promise of a full match feed, but it's what's actually there.
If you're on the US East Coast, the Myanmar match kicks off at 6:30 a.m. Monday. UK viewers get an easier 11:30 a.m. Both the Bangladesh and North Korea matches go off at 3 a.m. ET and 8 a.m. BST — set an alarm, or make peace with watching a replay.
South Korea should get past Myanmar and Bangladesh without much drama. The Bell reunion is Monday, September 14. What the run means gets decided on September 21.
This is a running news series, not a one-off post — new stories go up twice a day, roughly 7am and 7pm Korea time.
More Korea coverage from our network: Hallyu Now · Korea Travel Planner · Korean Table · Seoul Skin Notes
Comments
Post a Comment