South Korean footballers on Tuesday vowed to avenge an earlier World Cup loss to Switzerland when the two countries meet for a friendly this week.

The 23 national team players reported to the training camp at National Football Center in Paju, north of Seoul, to start preparing for the friendly match against Switzerland on Friday. The match will kick off at 8 p.m. at Seoul World Cup Stadium. Both nations have qualified for next year’s World Cup in Brazil.

This will be the first clash between the two countries since Switzerland defeated South Korea 2-0 in the final Group G match at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The loss knocked South Korea out of the tournament, and Switzerland moved on to the round of 16, where it lost to Ukraine on penalties.

None of the South Korean players from the 2006 squad will be playing this week, but members of the present team said they’re looking for a payback on home ground.

This will be the last friendly match at home for South Korea this year. The team will fly to Dubai to face Russia on Nov. 19.

The country’s next scheduled matches will take place in January, likely in the United States.

Defensive back Kwak Tae-hwi, the senior member of the team at age 32, said he’d like to end the year on a good note.

“This will be a good test for us against a strong team,” Kwak said. South Korea is ranked 56th, while Switzerland in ranked seventh. “At the World Cup (next year), we’re bound to face a strong country. We will try to play more organized football this time.”

Kim Shin-wook, who leads the domestic K League Classic with 19 goals this season, said he wants to do what the veterans couldn’t do seven years earlier.

“I still remember the match against Switzerland from the World Cup in Germany,” he said. “I hope we can play well as a team and beat Switzerland ahead of the next World Cup.”

Kim, a 196-centimeter striker, is back on coach Hong Myung-bo’s team after missing five international matches. Hong had previously said Kim’s presence on the field was detrimental to the team’s offensive flow, because wingers and defensive backs would only look to send in long crosses for the towering Kim, instead of trying to create plays on the ground.

Kim said he hopes to prove that he is no longer a one-dimensional player.

“While I was away from the national team, I focused on ground game rather than aerial attacks,” Kim said. “I feel the pressure to show that I am a different player than before, but I would just like to help the team.”

Kim has scored four goals in his last five K League Classic matches, and he scored three of them with his feet.

“I thought long and hard about how I caused the team to resort to long ball tactics,” Kim admitted. “I think I can play better with my teammates this time.”

One of Kim’s teammates is his close friend Son Heung-min, who scored his first career hat trick for Bayer Leverkusen in Germany’s Bundesliga last weekend.

Son insisted Tuesday that playing for the country is a different animal than doing so for his club and that he will have to bear down even harder against Switzerland.

“I hope to play as well for the country as I did for my club,” said Son, who scored twice against Haiti in September and had a goal against Mali last month.

“It’s important for me to keep making the national team and learn from the experience.”

Son has a teammate from Switzerland on Bayer Leverkusen, forward Eren Derdiyok, but he didn’t make the Swiss roster this time.

“I told him I would come back with a win over his country,” Son said. “We can’t afford to lose this one.” (Yonhap News)