Cho Gyu-seong of the Korean national soccer team is hitting a rebound shot during the second match between Jordan and Korea in the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup group stage held at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha, Qatar on the 20th (local time).
Oh Hyun-gyu of the Korean national soccer team is hitting a shot during the match between Jordan and Korea in the second match of the Group E group stage of the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup held at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha, Qatar, on the 20th (local time).
In order for Klinsmann, who is aiming to win the Asian Cup for the first time in 64 years, to achieve his goal, the silent front line attackers must wake up. Frontline resources Cho Gyu-seong (Midtjylland) and Oh Hyun-gyu (Celtic), who have been criticized due to repeated poor performance recently, need to have their value recognized through scoring in the last group game.
The Korean national soccer team, led by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, will play the third and final match of Group E against Malaysia in the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup at Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar, at 8:30 p.m. on the 25th (Korean time). .
Korea confirmed its advancement to the round of 16 early on, with Indonesia losing in the match between Japan and Indonesia the previous day. Korea, which currently has 1 win and 1 draw (4 points), will finish in at least 3rd place even if it loses to Malaysia and advance to the round of 16, beating Indonesia (3 points) and China (2 points).
It is a game that can be played with a relatively light heart, but victory is absolutely necessary. If they rise to first place in the group, they will face Japan, who are considered the favorites for the championship, but if the final game is not good, it will be difficult to revive the atmosphere in the tournament.
Apart from the problem of the departure of some injured players such as Lee Ki-je (Suwon) and Kim Jin-su (Jeonbuk), Klinsmann needs goals from the forward strikers to face the upcoming tournament comfortably.
Coach Klinsmann deployed a total of three forwards ahead of this tournament. Cho Gyu-seong, Oh Hyun-gyu, and even Jung Woo-young (Stuttgart) were named to the striker position. Even though Hwang Ui-jo (Nottingham), who was controversial last year due to his personal life, was excluded from the national team, Coach Klinsmann did not select a striker other than the existing players.
The Korean national football team, participating in the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup, is training at the Al Egla Training Center in Doha, Qatar, on the 24th (local time).
This is because there was trust in Cho Gyu-seong and Oh Hyun-gyu, who are active in Europe.
But so far, they have not met expectations. Korea scored a total of 5 goals in the first group match against Bahrain (3-1 win) and against Jordan (2-2 draw) in the second match, none of which were scored by the frontline strikers.
In the first game, Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) scored multiple goals and Hwang In-beom (Zvezda) scored, and against Jordan, Son Heung-min (Tottenham) scored only a penalty kick and an own goal.
In particular, Cho Gyu-sung missed several good opportunities in the match against Jordan and received a lot of criticism from fans. Some fans left unspeakable swear words on the player’s social media.
In addition, Oh Hyun-gyu, who came on as a substitute midway through the second half in the match against Jordan, was only more motivated and could not play the role of a ‘joker’ or problem solver.
In the end, the way to silence all criticism is for the strikers to score goals on the ground themselves. Only when strikers open a path in the center can other teammates, such as Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in, Hwang In-beom, and Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), also gain strength.
Only if the strikers score against Malaysia, which is objectively considered one level below in terms of power, will they be able to show better performance even when they face strong teams such as Japan or Saudi Arabia in the tournament.
Coach Klinsmann said, “Right now, I’m only thinking about and concentrating on the game against Malaysia,” and added, “Afterwards, I’ll think about the round of 16. “The goal is to advance to the round of 16 as first place in the group,” he said, confident of victory. 스포츠토토맨