South Korea: Our World Cup preparations for Bafana Bafana and the rest of our group opponents have already started

Ordinarily, you would not expect that World Cup nations have started preparing for the global spectacle.

This is because the global spectacle is six months from now and just last Friday the draw conducted with the groups revealed to the rest of the world.

So the expectation is that countries are still trying to find themselves in terms of which players to select from and standby players.

But that not how Bafana's opponents in Group A South Korea are approaching their opponents.

The Koreans, who also have South Africa, Mexico and a play-off team from Europe, have started their preparations.

Korean coach Hong Myungbo says their preparations are underway especially for South Africa given that they played Mexico in September while the play-off team from Europe remains a mystery.

Mexico and Korea played a 2-2 draw in a friendly international during the September Fifa break.

"I was taken aback to see us being selected at the very beginning," Myungbo said, as per FIFA.com.

"You can't ever assume that you can get a favourable draw at a World Cup.

"Our work to analyse our opponents will start now. We've faced Mexico in September, and South Africa have produced very good results recently.

"These games will give us the base to build on," he continued.

Bafana will face Mexico in the opening match while the Koreans will start their tournament against the play-off team from Europe.