U23 South Korea receives a shocking blow just before facing U23 Vietnam

U23 South Korea will be missing their number one central defender, Kim Ji-soo, at the 2025 Panda Cup friendly competition.

On November 4th, U23 South Korea announced a squad of 24 players for the 2025 Panda Cup friendly tournament in China. The most notable are the trio playing in Europe: defender Kim Ji-soo from Kaiserslautern, midfielder Kim Yong-hak from Portimonense, and Kim Myung-jun from Genk in Belgium, along with several players competing in the K-League.

However, on November 7th, defender Kim Ji-soo from Kaiserslautern announced that he would be unable to join the U23 South Korea squad due to a thigh strain, forcing the team to make a replacement. This is a significant loss for U23 South Korea as Kim Ji-soo is an irreplaceable center-back in their defense.

Notably, head coach Lee Min-sung of U23 South Korea was previously an assistant coach under Lee Jang-soo in China and is quite familiar with Chinese football. During a training camp in Saudi Arabia in October, U23 South Korea suffered heavy defeats, losing 0-4 and 0-2 consecutively to the host U23 Saudi Arabia team, putting considerable pressure on coach Lee Min-sung.

According to the schedule, U23 South Korea will gather at Incheon Airport on November 10, then fly directly from Incheon to Chengdu to prepare for their first match against Uzbekistan on the 12th. Since South Korea and Uzbekistan are in the same group for the Asian Cup group stage next January, the match between the two teams will be held behind closed doors.

Unlike U23 South Korea, both U23 Uzbekistan and U23 China are not fielding their best age-group players. The squads of these two opponents mainly include players born in 2005, aiming to prepare the team for the 2028 Olympics.

Meanwhile, U23 Vietnam will also deploy their strongest squad consisting mostly of key players who won the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship and advanced through the 2026 U23 Asian qualifiers. The 2025 Panda Cup friendly will be an excellent opportunity for U23 Vietnam to prepare for the 33rd SEA Games taking place in December in Thailand.

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