The South Korean U23 men's football team encountered a travel problem for the second consecutive day at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games (ASIAD), thereby revealing shortcomings in the organization of transportation for the tournament.
Under the guidance of coach Lee Min-sung, South Korea U23 started their campaign in Group D with a 4-1 victory over Qatar at Mizuho Park rugby field in Nagoya on September 15.
Overage player Eom Ji-sung (24 years old, currently playing for Swansea City) scored a hat-trick in this match.
The team is expected to move to a nearby training ground on September 16 for physical recovery, but the bus arranged by the organizers did not arrive on time.
The Korean Football Association then had to arrange a replacement vehicle themselves, and the whole team arrived at the training ground at 10:50 am, 20 minutes later than scheduled.
Previously, the team also had travel problems on the day of the match against Qatar.
The bus driver seemed unfamiliar with the route and mistakenly drove the whole team to a baseball stadium - a place not used for baseball events at the ASIAD.
After going the wrong way, the team arrived at Mizuho Park rugby field just 1 hour before the match started.
South Korea is not the only team in trouble with travel issues.
The Vietnamese women's volleyball team was instructed to get on the bus after arriving in Japan on September 14, but the bus took the players to the wrong hotel.
Coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet and his team were forced to carry luggage and competition equipment themselves to walk to their real accommodation.
The Indonesian men's basketball team also encountered a similar delay on September 10, when the team's bus arrived 40 minutes later than scheduled for the group stage match against Japan, without any explanation for this delay.
