South Korea To Set Up World Cup Base Camp In Guadalajara

SEOUL, Jan 22 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- South Korea will have their base camp for the upcoming FIFA Cup in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) announced Thursday the Taegeuk Warriors will use Chivas Verde Valle, the training facility for the Mexican pro club C.D. Guadalajara, as their training base for the June 11-July 19 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

South Korea will face Mexico, South Africa and a European playoff winner in Group A, and will play all three of their group stage matches in Mexico -- two in Guadalajara and one in Monterrey.

Earlier this month, South Korea and other participating nations submitted their lists of preferred base camp sites to FIFA, and the KFA said Chivas Verde Valle was the national team's first choice.

With Guadalajara sitting some 1,500 metres above sea level, South Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo has spoken of the need to travel to the Mexican city well ahead of time to allow his players to get acclimated to the high altitude.

South Korea will also likely run a pre-training camp in the US., before traveling to Mexico, with Denver and Salt Lake City, also high-altitude cities, being seen as candidates.

South Korea will be playing in their 11th consecutive World Cup and 12th overall.

This year's tournament will be the largest World Cup in history, with 48 nations, up from 32, in action. The top two teams from each of the 12 groups will qualify for the knockout stage, along with eight best third-place teams.

-- BERNAMA-YONHAP