Korea’s under-23 men’s national soccer team has qualified for the Olympics nine times in a row - a world first.
The Korean women’s national soccer team will be participating in the Olympic qualifying tournament to secure their place in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The women’s team will play against Myanmar and Vietnam next month in Jeju.
Mike Balfour reports.

[slug] Training field in Seogwipo

The Korean women’s soccer team, led by head coach Colin Bell, is warming up before drills to secure its place in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

[slug] Soccer drills in Jeju from January 9th

The team set up a base camp on January 9th in Jeju for twice a day high intensity training.

INTERVIEW
Colin Bell / Head coach, Women’s national soccer team
[인터뷰 콜린 벨 / 올림픽 여자축구 대표팀 감독 ]
"남은 며칠 동안 선수들이 전술적인 면을 배우는 것도 중요하지만 정신적, 신체적으로 날카로운 모습을 갖추는 것이 중요하다고 판단합니다."

[slug] Never qualified for previous Olympic Games

Korea’s women’s soccer team has failed to qualify for any Olympic Games since women’s soccer made its debut in 1996 at Atlanta.
However, experts anticipate that this year’s tournament offers a good chance for the team to qualify for the summer games.

[slug] North Korea pulled out of Olympics

North Korea’s national team has pulled out of competition. It was one of the teams in Group A along with South Korea and ranked 11th in the world by FIFA. The strong team’s decision gives the South Korean team a bigger chance of winning.
The South Korean team will have matches against Vietnam and Myanmar.
Currently, FIFA ranks the South Korea women’s team at 20th, Vietnam at 32nd and Myanmar in 44th place.
The team is getting ready for the fight.

INTERVIEW
Lee Yeong-ju / National women’s soccer team player
Our coach is encouraging us to devote all of our energy to the 3 preliminary matches, even though North Korea won’t be participating.
[인터뷰 이영주 / 올림픽 여자축구 국가대표 ]
"감독님도 처음부터 강조하신 것이 북한이 안나와서 (나머지팀이) 상대적으로 약하지만 3경기에 쏟아 부을 것을 두 경기에 쏟아부으라고 "

[slug] Chelsea player Ji So-yun to join national team

The coach has finalized the line-up of 20 players for the qualifying tournament.
Ji So-yun who plays for Chelsea and other Koreans playing in Europe are included in the line-up.
Their participation brings high expectations.
The team is now practicing for organized play.

INTERVIEW
Park Yeo-eun / National women’s soccer team player
Players flying into Korea are still overcoming jet lag, but I can’t wait to start training with them.
[ 인터뷰 박예은 / 올림픽 여자축구 국가대표]
"언니들과 같이 볼차고 싶고 기대도 있는데 지금은 온지 얼마 안됐기 때문에 시차적응도 해야되고 그래도 빨리 훈련하고 싶은 마음이 큽니다. "

[slug] Preliminary matches on Feb.3 against Myanmar, Feb.9 against Vietnam

The national team will have matches against Myanmar and Vietnam on February 3rd and 9th respectively at the Jeju World Cup Stadium.
The top two teams of the tournament in each group will have play off games to determine which team will qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
If the South Korean women’s team passes the tournament, it will meet one of the top two teams in the group B that consists of Australia, China, Thailand and Taiwan.

[Reporter] Mike Balfour
[Camera] Jwa Sang-eun

The whole nation is cheering the women’s national team in its attempt to secure its place in the Olympics for the first time.

Mike Balfour, KCTV