“The Colombian team left the hotel 30 minutes later than the day before the game, and arrived late at the stadium due to congestion on Friday,” said a Colombian security official.
At 8:00 pm on the 24th, at the Ulsan Munsu Soccer Stadium, where the Korea-Colombia match will be held, players from both teams warmed up with 30 minutes left before the kick-off.
And with 15 minutes left, the Korean national team players went into the locker room. But the Colombian players were engrossed in training. Even with 10 minutes left before kick-off, the Colombian players trained.
An official from the Korea Football Association approached and said, “Now we have to go back to the locker room and prepare for the game.” However, the Colombian official pretended to have heard.
The reason is that the Colombian team arrived at the stadium with about 40 minutes left before the 8:00 kick-off time. Of course, I was not ready, so I stayed on the ground and trained more.
The referee blew his whistle at around 7:55 and motioned for the Colombians to return to the locker room. But the players didn’t even budge. The crowd also booed the Colombian team.
Only then did the players enter the lockers one by one, and the game could start at 8:21.
Regarding the late arrival at the stadium, Colombia’s coach Lorenzo said, “I traveled by bus while training yesterday. Basically, it took about 3-40 minutes, but today it took more than 1 hour and 30 minutes due to traffic jam. In a way, it was an accident. “This is something we didn’t expect. We estimated the travel time to be between 3 and 40 minutes, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t use other means of transportation.”
▲ An official from the Korea Football Association (KFA) and the referee instead of beating the Colombian players. 안전놀이터
▲Colombian players train while listening to the booing of the full crowd.
Meanwhile, Korea drew 2-2 in the warm-up game against Colombia. Son Heung-min scored two goals in the first half, but allowed the opponent to score consecutive goals early in the second half, ending the game in a draw. Korea will play an evaluation match against Uruguay today at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 28th.