South Korea vs El Salvador

South Korea will be looking to bounce back from a sluggish start to 2023 when they meet North American outsiders El Salvador at the Daejeon World Cup Stadium.

Paulo Bento’s exit from the South Korea national team in the wake of a group stage exit at the 2022 World Cup last December has left the ‘Taegeuk Warriors’ in tatters. Newly-appointed boss Jurgen Klinsmann launched his managerial career in Seoul with a goal-glutted 2-2 home draw against Colombia in March. However, the wheels have fallen off in the aftermath, with the Koreans losing back-to-back internationals by a single-goal margin, including a narrow 1-0 defeat to Peru last week. It’s been over five years since the hosts last failed to win four times in a row, highlighting Klinsmann’s determination to get his side back to winning ways in their first-ever meeting with El Salvador. Stemming the bleeding at the back is crucial, with South Korea going six straight internationals without a clean sheet for the first time in years.

In the meantime, El Salvador succumbed to a dreadful 6-0 defeat to South Korea’s bitter rivals Japan in their first June friendly, extending an underwhelming losing streak to five matches. Losing is the least of the visitors’ problems, as they take the field after failing to find the net in four straight games. Speaking of El Salvador’s scoring woes, they’ve lost their last four away fixtures, including those as nominal visitors, by an aggregate score of 9-0. Three of those defeats yielded a narrow 1-0 scoreline, suggesting Hugo Perez’s men could put up a fight. But they’re still staring down the barrel of another heartbreak, especially considering their last victory on foreign soil dates back to January 2022 (D2, L5 since).