Korean coach: ‘The king must keep the throne’

“Korea faces many difficulties because the players are late or injured,” Hwang said Yonhap May 31st. “Many players are also busy with Korea preparing for the 2022 World Cup. But I don’t consider those problems an excuse. Our goal is very clear: The champion must defend the throne. The important thing The important thing is that the players need to consider this as an opportunity to express themselves, in order to earn a place in the 2022 World Cup.”

Coach Hwang went to Uzbekistan with 14 players on May 23. The group of players playing abroad such as Lee Kang-in (Spain), Jeong Sang-bin (Switzerland), Hong Hyun-seok (Austria) or Oh Se-hun (Japan) will join the army later. As of May 30, Korea only had 18 of the maximum 23 players in Uzbekistan. The remaining five players will join the team after the end of the K-League round.

One problem Hwang is concerned about is that this generation of players has not played any official matches under his rule. The 54-year-old coach has summoned players to gather in November 2021, January and March 2022. But in all three rounds, Korea did not play any official tournament.

Lee Kang-in was Korea’s standout player at the tournament, as he played 74 La Liga matches for Valencia and Mallorca and won the 2019 King’s Cup. In the same year, Lee won the U20 best player award. World Cup, when Korea reached the final. Kim Hyun-woo, Lee Kyu-hyuk, Oh Se-hun, Park Ji-min, Ko Jae-hyeon, Kim Ju-sung, Cho Young-wook and Choi Jun are the other players who played at the U20 World Cup 2019 and U23. Asia 2022.

South Korea will play Group C against Malaysia on June 2, then meet Vietnam and Thailand, respectively. In 2020, Korea won the championship under Kim Hak-bum, then went to the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

Hoang An