Hwang Sun-hong, who has guided the South Korean national soccer team to the quarterfinals of the Asian Games, emphasized that the team must overcome the home advantage and rough play of quarterfinal opponent China to win the gold medal.
Jung Woo-young (Stuttgart) scored a brace and Baek Seung-ho (Jeonbuk), Cho Young-wook (Gimcheon) and Hong Hyun-seok (Hent) added a relay goal in a 5-1 victory over Kyrgyzstan in the Asian Games Round of 16 on Sunday afternoon at the Jinhua Sports Center Stadium in Zhejiang, China.Korea breezed through the group stage with 16 points, a clean sheet and three wins in three matches to advance to the quarterfinals. Their quarterfinal opponent is now known. It’s hosts China, who beat Qatar 1-0 earlier in the day. They will meet on October 1 at the Huanglong Sports Center in Hangzhou.
“It’s a scenario we fully expected,” said Huang. “If we can’t overcome the pressure of such a large crowd and rough play, we can’t win the gold medal. No one can stand in our way. We have three shots left. We’re going to put one foot in front of the other. I think it’s going to be a good match.”
South Korea took the lead in the 11th minute when captain Baek Seung-ho calmly converted a penalty by Seol Young-woo. A minute later, Jeong Woo-young headed home a cross from Uhm Won-sang to extend the lead.
The lead remained precarious until the 28th minute when Baek Seung-ho’s ball-touching mistake allowed Mascat Aligulov to score, but a penalty by Jung Woo-young in the 29th minute, Cho Young-wook in the 33rd minute, and Hong Hyun-seok in the 40th minute secured the four-goal victory.온라인카지노
Hwang focused on the ‘one goal’ rather than the ‘five goals’. “We are happy to go to the next round,” he said, “but soccer is a game of flow. If we don’t sink them when we have the lead, we give them chances and we suffer, and I think it was a lesson learned. I hope we don’t play like that next time.”
Lee “Key Man” Kang-in started in the central attacking midfield and played the full 60 minutes (1 hour) until he was replaced by Ko Young-joon in the 15th minute of the second half. Lee, who played 36 minutes in the third group game against Bahrain, was more active than in the first game. A space pass to Jung Woo-young, a cross from the left with an outstretched left foot. A phantom dribble that stripped the defense and a cross that hit Cho Young-wook right on the forehead showed a different ‘class’. They shined even without an offensive point.
Coach Hwang said, “(60 minutes) was the planned time. There was no doubt about the victory. After the first half… there was a looseness after the second goal, and we made a lot of mistakes apart from the goal. We had a lot of passes that went backwards when we should have been going forward. We had to cut down on our mistakes. Ball possession is very important for us to control the game. (So) we made a substitution to reinforce it.”
Captain Baek Seung-ho made a costly ball-touching mistake that cost South Korea the lead and allowed them to concede a late goal. Here’s why he wasn’t smiling after the game.
Jinhua (China)=Yoon Jin-man Reporter yoonjinman@sportschosun.co
Hwang Sun-hong, head coach of the Asian Games team, at the press conference against Kyrgyzstan.
-After the match
“We are happy to move on to the next round, but soccer is a game of flux. If we don’t sink them when we have the lead, we give them chances and they struggle. I think it was a lesson for us. I hope we don’t have to play like that next time.
-On playing China in the quarterfinals. There’s a host nation advantage, and the Chinese played rough in a friendly in June.
It’s a fairly expected scenario. If we can’t handle the pressure of such a large crowd and rough play, we won’t win the gold medal. No one can stop us. We have three shots left. We’re going to put one foot in front of the other. I think it’s going to be a good match.
-You substituted Lee Kang-in with a 2-1 lead. Were you confident about the win and what did you talk about at halftime?
(60 minutes) was the time we were supposed to play. There was no doubt about the victory. After the first half…. After the second goal, we were sloppy and made a lot of mistakes, except for the goal. We had a lot of passes that went backwards when we should have been going forward. We had to cut down on our mistakes. Ball possession is very important for us to control the game. (So) we made substitutions to reinforce.
-This is your first goal, how will you improve?
We had a lot of problems on the counterattack today when we weren’t organized. We didn’t face many such situations in qualifying. It was a little bit unfamiliar, and I didn’t have enough awareness of the situation. Psychologically, I struggled with being chased. When you get to the quarterfinals, there will be a lot of situations like that. You have to be organized. You have to be organized. We’ve got three days left. I’m going to organize that and prepare for the quarterfinals, the semifinals and the final.
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