“I hope it’s not a serious injury.”
South Korea’s U-24 football team, led by head coach Hwang Sun-hong, won their first match against China 3-1 at the Jinhua Sports Center in Jinhua, China on Friday (June 15).
After a 0-0 first half, Hwang made several changes to his attacking lineup at the start of the second half, and it paid off. China found the back of the net three times, with Uhm Won-sang scoring a multi-goaler and Jung Woo-young scoring a wonder goal.
After the game, Hwang said, “I think it was a good game for both Korea and China. There are some things we are satisfied with, but there are also some things we are not satisfied with. We need to improve a little more,” he said, adding, “We want to prepare and improve for the second game and have a good fight. It helped us a lot.”
Korea suffered a lot of injuries as many 먹튀검증 players fell down due to China’s rough play. Injuries also occurred. Multi-goal scorer Uhm Won-sang injured her ankle and had to be replaced by Choi Jun.
Coach Hwang said, “I always ask the players in the forward line to be aggressive. Uhm Won-sang’s two goals today are a positive factor for our team,” he said, adding, “Unfortunately, she rolled her ankle and had to be substituted again due to injury. I hope it’s not a serious injury.”
It was a three-goal second half, but we also conceded a goal. It was a clear lineout that felt like a blown call, but with all the assistant referees being Chinese, such biased calls are unfortunate but acceptable. Korea also conceded a try when they stopped playing even though the referee hadn’t blown the whistle.
“I think we responded well to the goal in the first half,” said Hwang. Congratulations to China for conceding in the second half, but it’s unfortunate for us. As a coach, I’m quite unsatisfied, and I think we need to work on that,” he said. “I wanted to finish the game with a clean sheet, and I’m not satisfied with the concession.”
Regardless of the outcome of the game, Huang played a lot of players and tested them as much as possible. Given the scoreline and the lack of trial opportunities before the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, it was an experiment.
“We haven’t settled on a best 11 yet, so it was a combination, an experiment. We need to test different players. We made a lot of changes,” he said. “Some of them were good, but some of them were not organizationally balanced. It was a mix of good and bad.”
South Korea’s ultimate goal is still gold. The Koreans have won both the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. Now they’re looking to do something no other country has ever accomplished: win three consecutive titles.
“Our goal is clear,” says Hwang. The desire to win is indescribable for the players and myself. However, the process of winning requires a lot of sacrifice and preparation. We still have a lot to work on. We need to work hard to improve in the remaining 100 days to be competitive at the Asian Games.”
