South Korea-Brazil, the probable formations of the international friendly
Already both certain of their presence at the 2026 World Cup to be played in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the national teams of South Korea and Brazil will compete in an international friendly scheduled for 8 p.m. local time (1 p.m. in Italy) at a stadium that hosted several 2002 World Cup matches, the World Cup Stadium in Seoul, the Korean capital.
The Asian Tigers are led by coach Hong Myung-bo, who is also known for his footballing background, with 136 appearances and 10 goals in the national team. They qualified for the 2026 World Cup at the end of the third round of the Asian qualifiers, dominating Group B which also promoted Jordan, took Iraq and Oman to the fourth round and closed the way for Palestine and Kuwait. Among the most interesting players were former Napoli defender Kim Ming-jae and the talented Son Heung-min, now at Los Angeles FC but with a notable Premier League background at Tottenham.
The team’s performance in the Asian qualifying rounds was also impressive.
As for the Seleçao, the South American qualifiers have shown a national team often in trouble, qualifying by finishing fifth in South America’s single group (the other qualifiers are Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay and Paraguay, while Bolivia must go through the playoffs). For the past few months the technical commissioner has been Carlo Ancelotti, who has been entrusted with the task of restoring luster to a team that seems to have lost itself in recent years: the human material is there (Vinicius jr, Rodrygo, veteran Casemiro, among others), these friendlies will be useful to amalgamate the group.
Probable lineups
SOUTH KOREA (5-4-1): Kim Seung-gyu; Kim Moon-hwan, Lee Han-beom, Kim Min-jae, Lee Tae-seok, Lee Myung-jae; Lee Kang-in, Hwang In-beom, Castrop, Son Heung-min; Hwang Hee-chan. C.t. Hong Myung-bo.
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BRASILE (4-2-4): Bento; Vitinho, Militao, Gabriel, Santos; Guimaraes, Casemiro; Estevao, Rodrygo, Cunha, Vinicius Jr. C.t. Ancelotti.
