Pointing out the benefits of the SEA Games, the Korean newspaper was worried when the home team met U23 Vietnam and Thailand
At the group stage of the 2022 AFC U23 Championship, Korea U23 happened to be in the same group with 3 representatives from Southeast Asia, namely: U23 Vietnam, U23 Thailand and U23 Malaysia. Analyzing the group stage, Osen (Korea) wrote:
“Coach Hwang Sun-hong’s army started training on May 24 with the goal of winning the Asian U23 Championship for the second time. However, since the qualifying matches from the end of last year, Mr. Hwang Sun -hong has not had any official matches with Korea U23 yet.
Korea U23 has not had any official match for a long time
U23 Korea was also invited to attend the Dubai Cup last March. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 epidemic prevented Coach Hwang Sun-hong and his students from attending. In order to get close to the Asian tournament, Korea U23 must increase the intensity of training to try to achieve the highest harmony.
7 months without playing an official match really gave coach Hwang Sun-hong a headache. All 3 opponents of U23 Korea, U23 Vietnam, U23 Thailand and U23 Malaysia, just went through a tournament not long ago.
3 representatives of Southeast Asia all competed in the SEA Games and had good results, U23 Vietnam won the championship, U23 Thailand runner-up, U23 Malaysia reached the semi-finals. All three of these teams are in a very good state of play and are in high spirits. That is a very worrying thing for Korea U23.”
U23 Vietnam just won the SEA Games gold medal more than a week ago.
Not only has little time to prepare, U23 Korea also has to wait until the last days before the tournament to have enough troops. Coach Hwang Sun-hong admitted difficulties before the opening match against Malaysia U23:
“I’m trying to assemble the squad, but it will take time for the players to fit together. We will have to quickly achieve a high level of coordination in the group stage.
The opening match is very important, it greatly affects the situation of the group as well as the morale of the players. Some of my players have only joined the army since May 30 and are not at their best physically when they meet Malaysia. However, I will try to help Korea U23 show the game with fast transitions.”
Lee Kang-in is the most expected star of Korea U23. The 21-year-old midfielder has just spent a relatively impressive season in the Mallorca shirt in La Liga. Revealing about Lee Kang-in’s physical condition, coach Hwang Sun-hong said that it is not certain that the student will play the full 90 minutes in the opening match.
Lee Kang-in is expected to be the conductor to bring Korea U23 to the championship.
U23 Korea will start the Asian U23 tournament with a match against U23 Myanmar at 20:00 (Vietnam time) on June 2. Next, they respectively faced U23 Vietnam (20h00 on August 5) and U23 Thailand (20h00 on August 8).
U23 Vietnam 1-0 U23 Thailand | 31st SEA Games men’s football (Phu Quy)
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
