South Korea's Futsal Wins Asian Cup for the First Time in 19 Years Again... Lost to Iraq for the second time in a row

*This content was translated by AI.

South Korea's futsal national team lost to Iraq after Indonesia and lost to the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) futsal Asian Cup for the second consecutive time.

South Korea, led by head coach Paulo Fernandez (Portugal), lost 2-3 to Iraq in the second Group A match of the tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia, on the 29th (Korea time). In the FIFA futsal ranking, South Korea is 57th and Iraq is 37th. In terms of AFC, South Korea is ranked 15th and Iraq is ranked 8th.

South Korea, which suffered a crushing 0-5 defeat in its first match against host Indonesia earlier, was virtually eliminated from the group stage as it lost both the first and second group matches. The challenge to win the Asian Cup for the first time in 19 years since the 2007 tournament was postponed to the next time. South Korea's futsal has not won in eight tournaments since 2008 after winning one and losing two at the 2007 Japanese tournament.

South Korea, which turned the game around with consecutive goals by Kim Gun-woo (Gyeonggi LBFS) and Um Ji-yong (Goyang Bulls Futsal Club) after losing the first goal, knelt down by losing consecutive goals by Salim Faisal and Salim Kadim at the end of the game. The first ever face-off against Iraq was also a disappointing defeat.

South Korea will play its final group match against Kyrgyzstan at 9 p.m. on the 31st at the Velodrome in Jakarta, Indonesia. Depending on the results of Kyrgyzstan's match against Indonesia, they may face off in the final match with elimination confirmed side by side. Kyrgyzstan is ranked 43rd in the FIFA futsal rankings, 14 places apart from South Korea. South Korea is inferior to the Futsal national team with one draw and one loss.

South Korea advanced to the finals in September last year after Thailand in Group B of the Asian Cup qualifying round in Nonthaburi, Thailand. The tournament will be divided into four groups of four teams, with 16 Asian countries participating. The top two teams in each group will play the quarterfinals tournament to determine the winning team. The top five players in Asia's FIFA futsal rankings are Iran (5th), Thailand (11th), Japan (13th), Vietnam (20th), and Uzbekistan (22nd).

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*This content was translated by AI.