South Korea has narrowed down the candidates for its men’s national team head coach to four or five, the sport’s technical director said Wednesday.

Lee Yong-soo, head of the technical committee at the Korea Football Association, told reporters that the goal is to fill the coaching vacancy within September but did not name any of the candidates.

“We have contacted four to five candidates about the position,” Lee told reporters at the National Football Center in Paju, north of Seoul. “We hope to have the new coach on the bench by the time we play friendly matches in October.”

Earlier this month, the KFA appeared close to reaching a deal with Bert van Marjiwk, a former bench boss for the Netherlands, but the negotiations broke down on taxation issues and on where the coach would spend the majority of his time as the South Korea coach.

South Korea will play Venezuela on Sept. 5 and Uruguay on Sept. 8 with three assistant coaches on the bench. Shin Tae-yong, a former head coach in the top-flight domestic competition K League Classic, will serve as the de facto interim head coach. He will be joined by two assistants from Hong’s regime: Park Kun-ha and Kim Bong-soo.

Korea is also trying to schedule matches against Costa Rica and Paraguay in October. (Yonhap)