The head coach of the Korean men's under-23 national football team, Lee Min-sung, vowed on Tuesday to bring home the country's fourth consecutive Asian Games gold medal, despite the squad's recent struggles.

Lee will lead Korea's under-23 side at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games kicking off later this month. Korea will attempt to win a fourth straight title, with four members of this summer's FIFA World Cup team having joined Lee's squad. Korea are the tournament's most successful football nation, having won a record six men's football gold medals at the Asian Games, including the last three editions — 2014 in Incheon, 2018 in Indonesia and 2022 in Hangzhou — a streak that has made the gold medal an expectation rather than an aspiration for Korean football.

"It has not been all smooth sailing up to this point, but I am sure that experience will help us in the long run," Lee told reporters before the start of the team's training camp at Korea Football Park in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, some 90 kilometers south of Seoul. "We will try to address our weaknesses and win the gold medal."

Expectations for the current under-23 generation are relatively low. Korea did not dominate the Asian Football Confederation U-23 Asian Cup in January, an event widely regarded as an important prelude to the Asian Games. The team narrowly got past Iran, Lebanon and Uzbekistan before losing 1-0 to Japan — a side made up mostly of under-21 players — in the semifinals.

Lee described the string of poor showings at the Asian Cup as merely part of the journey.

"We have not yet played a game with our full squad, with all the players available," he said. "I believe the players who have gone through that period will have learned valuable lessons."

In the group stage of the Asian Games, Korea will face Qatar and Saudi Arabia. With 15 teams drawn into three groups of four and one group of three, Korea ended up in Group D with only two opponents. The top two teams from each of the four groups advance to the quarterfinals, meaning teams in Group D play one fewer match than those in the other three groups.

"We just have to play our own game, and not worry so much about our opponents," Lee said. "We have prepared ourselves against both Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and we will try to play well right from the start."

For Tuesday's training session, 14 of Lee's 23 players — all of them based in the domestic K League — were available. Those based in Europe, including Bae Jun-ho of Stoke City and Kim Ji-soo of Brentford, will join the national team in Japan.