Where to Watch South Korea vs Qatar, Asian Games Opener in Nagoya
South Korea's men open their Asian Games title defence tonight, September 15, against Qatar at Paloma Mizuho Rugby Stadium in Nagoya. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. KST, the same clock as Japan, so 11:30 a.m. in the UK and 6:30 a.m. on the US East Coast. The men's tournament uses five stadiums in four cities, and both of Korea's group games are at this one. Yes, a rugby ground.
I wrote up the women's side twice last week (the North Korea rematch and the Colin Bell reunion), so this is the men's turn. Korea are going for a fourth gold in a row. Both Korean previews I opened this morning carry the same head-to-head number against Qatar, one win in eight.
A three-team group and a week off
Group D has only three teams. Iraq withdrew, the field is 15, and on the tournament page Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the group with one fewer match than everyone else. Korea play twice in the group, both at the same Nagoya ground.
- September 15, 7:30 p.m. KST (6:30 a.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. UK), Qatar
- September 22, 7:00 p.m. KST (6:00 a.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. UK), Saudi Arabia
Reading the fixture list top to bottom, the thing I only noticed on the list itself is that Qatar play Saudi Arabia on September 18, three days after facing Korea, while Korea then sit for a full week. Whether a seven-day gap inside a tournament is a rest or a rhythm-breaker depends on who you ask, and with a squad this young I don't know which it is.
The eligibility line is players born on or after January 1, 2003, plus up to three older "dispensation" players, which the Korean press calls wildcards (와일드카드).
Who Lee Min-sung brought
Lee Min-sung named his 23 on July 9. Per the Olympic Council of Asia's write-up from July 27, four of them were in Korea's squad at the World Cup in June, and the three wildcards are Yang Hyun-jun (24, Celtic), Eom Ji-sung (24, Swansea City) and Lee Gi-hyuk (26, Gangwon FC).
The under-23 core is Europe-heavy at the front. Bae Jun-ho of Stoke City wears the number 10, and Kookmin Ilbo's July draw report lists Tottenham's Yang Min-hyuk, Brentford's Kim Ji-soo and Newcastle's Park Seung-su alongside him. eToday this morning adds Lee Young-jun and Kim Myung-jun to the Europe-based group.
Bae did the pre-match talking. In eToday's report, published at 6:14 a.m. KST today, he says the team has "analysed Qatar a lot" (카타르에 대해 많이 분석했다) and that "I think our forwards have an edge over other teams. We'll go for a lot of goals from early on and make the game easy" (공격진이 다른 팀보다 강점이 있다고 생각한다. 초반부터 많은 골을 넣어 경기를 쉽게 풀어가겠다). My translation. Standard pre-match talk from a number 10, and given the head-to-head record below, a bit bolder than usual.
One win in eight against Qatar
Both Gukje News (published 12:07 a.m. KST today) and eToday give the same figure for Korea against Qatar at U-23 level: one win, five draws, two defeats. Neither piece lists the individual matches and I haven't rebuilt the list myself, so take the 1-5-2 as the Korean outlets' count. Five of eight ending level is the number I'd look at if you're pricing anything at 6:30 in the morning.
Lee was measured about the group back in July, in a line the OCA carried citing the KFA. "Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar have proven themselves in Asia. If we were to post good results in those two matches, we would still have to beat our next opponents, regardless of who they are." I couldn't find the Korean original of that line, so that is the English as the OCA printed it.
Korea won Incheon 2014, Jakarta-Palembang 2018 and Hangzhou 2022, and eToday's framing is that gold here would be the first four-in-a-row in the history of Asian Games men's football (아시안게임 남자축구 사상 처음으로 4회 연속 우승).
Where to watch, and where you can't
In Korea it is everywhere. KBS2, MBC, SBS and TV Chosun all carry it live, and online it's on the broadcasters' own Asian Games channels on Naver's Chzzk (치지직) plus SPOTV NOW, per eToday; Gukje News says the same, terrestrial plus TV Chosun.
Outside Korea is thinner. The most recent guide I found, Holafly's how-to-watch page dated August 26, says no dedicated official broadcaster had been announced for the US, UK, Australia or Canada, and that the host broadcaster CMG-IMP produces the world feed that gets sold country by country. I found nothing newer that contradicts it. Highlights go up on the official Aichi-Nagoya 2026 YouTube and Instagram channels. For a 6:30 a.m. ET kickoff, most of you were going to end up on those anyway.
Whether Chzzk or SPOTV NOW plays outside Korea I haven't tested, so I can't tell you. If you're in Japan, you are on Korean time already and 7:30 p.m. at a rugby ground in Mizuho is the simplest option in this whole post.
The Saudi match is the 22nd at the same ground, the quarter-finals start September 25 and the medal matches are October 3, per Kookmin Ilbo's schedule. If you find a stream that works outside Korea tonight, say so in the comments, because I couldn't.
This is a running news series, not a one-off post — new stories go up twice a day, roughly 7am and 7pm Korea time.
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