South Korea to Play Saudi Arabia, Qatar in Football Friendlies

South Korea will face Saudi Arabia and Qatar in two men's football friendlies in Doha next month, Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's national news agency, reported. 

The matches, scheduled for November 13 and 17, will help prepare the team for the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup in January.

The Korea Football Association announced that the first match against Saudi Arabia, ranked 55th in the world, will start at 5:30 p.m. local time, while the Qatar match, against the 60th-ranked team, will begin at 5 p.m. local time. These games fall within the last FIFA international match window of 2026.

South Korea, currently ranked 32nd in the world, has a mixed record against both opponents. They have five wins, nine draws, and five losses against Saudi Arabia in 19 meetings, and six wins, two draws, and three losses against Qatar.

The friendlies will be the final two matches for South Korea's interim head coach, Robert Moreno, who has been in charge since September. Moreno's first four matches in charge were all played in South Korea, with the team winning against Ecuador and Uzbekistan, losing to Uruguay, and drawing with Venezuela.

The Korea Football Association had initially planned to host the Saudi Arabia match in Saudi Arabia but decided to relocate it to Qatar due to security concerns, as Saudi Arabia has been under attack from Yemen's Houthi rebels. The association will consider retaining Moreno through the Asian Cup depending on the team's performance in his first six matches.

Moreno's tenure as interim head coach ends on November 27, but his future beyond that date remains uncertain. The team's preparations for the friendlies have been complicated by a fractured national team locker room, with some players, including defender Kim Min-jae, publicly criticizing their teammates' level of effort.