Korea’s ‘monster defender’ Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) once again scored with his head.
The Korean national soccer team, led by Jurgen Klinsmann, took a 1-0 lead in the friendly match against Vietnam held at Suwon World Cup Stadium at 8 p.m. on the 17th thanks to Kim Min-jae’s header in the fourth minute of the first half.
The Vietnam game is the second and final game of Korea’s October international match. In the first leg, a friendly match against Tunisia held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 13th, Klinsmann won 4-0 thanks to Lee Kang-in (PSG)’s multiple goals, the opponent’s own goal, and Hwang Ui-jo (Norwich City)’s key goal.
Following a 1-0 win against Saudi Arabia last September, and a complete win over Tunisia, Klinsmann achieved his first win at home and his second consecutive win in international matches. Now, they continued their momentum and attempted to win their third consecutive international match against Vietnam.
Korean soccer fans flocked to Suwon World Cup Stadium, anticipating Klinsmann’s victory. Ahead of the game, the Korea Football Association announced, “Tickets for the national soccer team friendly match between Korea and Vietnam to be held at Suwon World Cup Stadium at 8 p.m. today are sold out at 2 p.m.”
The total number of seats at Suwon World Cup Stadium is known to be around 41,000. Not only Korean fans, but also many Vietnamese soccer fans visited the stadium to watch the match against Asian powerhouse Korea.
As Vietnam is ranked 95th in the FIFA rankings, 69 levels below Korea, which is ranked 26th, Klinsmann is expected to win three times in a row. Also, so far, Korea has met Vietnam a total of 6 times, winning 5 and losing 1, giving them the upper hand in their opponent’s record. The last loss was in October 2003, a whopping 20 years ago.
Although the team is relatively underpowered, Klinsmann plans to prepare for the finals against Asian teams starting in November through the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam. The national team is scheduled to play a two-game series between Singapore and China in the 2026 North and Central America World Cup Asian region second round qualifying match on November 16 and 21, and will participate in the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup hosted by Qatar in January next year.
While it was expected that Korea would easily win, Korea scored the first goal in the 5th minute of the first half, proving that they are an Asian powerhouse. The first goal was scored by Kim Min-jae, a key defender of the national team and a world-class center back.
The goal came from a corner kick situation. In the 5th minute of the first half, Lee Kang-in’s sharp corner kick from the right went straight to the goal, and Kim Min-jae overcame the defenders’ interference, jumped high, and hit it exactly on the head with a header. Kim Min-jae’s powerful header shot went straight into the net, leading to Korea’s first goal.안전놀이터
With this, Kim Min-jae succeeded in scoring his 4th goal in the A match. It was an A-match scorer that came 1,402 days after scoring the winning goal against China in December 2019, leading to a 1-0 victory. Kim Min-jae, who scored a goal for the national team after a long time, shyly gave a ‘heart ceremony’.
Kim Min-jae seemed to score an additional goal with his header against Tunisia on the 13th, but it was recorded as an own goal after hitting a Tunisian player, so it was not recognized as Kim Min-jae’s goal. In addition, Lee Kang-in, who scored two goals against Tunisia and led the team to a 4-0 victory, succeeded in increasing attack points for two consecutive games by assisting Kim Min-jae’s first goal with a corner kick.
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