When competing in a tournament, there are games that are praised even if you draw, and there are games that are criticized even if you win. Hwang Seon-hong, who won a hard-fought victory against Kyrgyzstan on the 9th, was close to the latter.

The U-22 national team led by coach Hwang Seon-hong won 1-0 in the second leg of the 2024 Paris Olympics first qualifier and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup qualifier against Kyrgyzstan held at the Changwon Football Center on the 9th. did. It is positive that the damage from the shock loss of 0-2 to Qatar in the first round of the preliminary round was quickly overcome with today’s victory. With 3 points, they quickly rose to first place in the group, beating Kyrgyzstan (1 draw, 1 loss) and Myanmar (1 loss) in the same group. Even if they draw with Myanmar in the final match held at the same venue on the 12th, they will finish first in the group and advance directly to the U-23 Asian Cup finals and Olympic qualifiers to be held in Qatar in April-May next year. The results of the preliminary match against Qatar, the host country of the Asian Cup finals, are not reflected in the rankings.

Although they gained an advantage with the win against Kyrgyzstan, the aftertaste is not refreshing. This is because of the performance shown by Hwang Seon-hong in the last two games. Even considering the fact that some key players in the age group that overlap with the national team for the Asian Games, which opens this month, were missing, it did not reach the level expected by soccer fans. There were repeated vain ball control misses and passing mistakes. When the opponent had the ball, there were more scenes where the opponent was fouled rather than stealing the ball through pressure and counterattacking. I didn’t get the impression that our players were superior in terms of individual skill compared to the two teams. The only player who could take out one or two of the opponent’s defenders with individual skills was Hong Yun-sang (Pohang), a technician who dreams of becoming ‘Korea’s Grealish.’메이저놀이터

We cannot help but point out the ‘scoring ability problem’ that has been repeated in every tournament for decades. The Olympic team scored only one goal in two games. In the match against Qatar, they were unable to open the opponent’s goal and lost 0-2, and in the match against Kyrgyzstan, they were unable to score an additional goal after scoring first in the 3rd minute of the first half, resulting in a narrow victory. If you don’t score a goal when you need to, you have no choice but to make the game difficult. This is also Klinsmann’s concern. The adult national team only scored one goal in three recent A matches.

The problem is that the scoring process was not smooth. There were not many scenes in which passing was linked to shooting. There was only one scene where a goal was scored through a tactical move. Against Kyrgyzstan, in the 3rd minute of the first half, Park Chang-woo (Jeonbuk) stabbed a pass toward the opponent’s left back space, and Jeong Sang-bin (Minnesota) stabbed a low, quick cross toward the goal, which Hong Yun-sang pushed in. Korea seemed to be in control of the game after scoring first and possessing the ball, but most of the time the ball stayed in our defensive area. Side passes and back passes were repeated. To score an additional goal, a bold forward pass, aggressive movement, and a sense of adventure and challenge are required.

It seems like there is still time until the Asian Cup finals, but the process of building a good team takes longer than expected. The Olympic team’s attention should be focused on the final qualifying round, which will determine whether or not they advance to the Olympic finals for the 10th consecutive time. If they cannot overwhelm the relatively weak Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar, it is clear that they will struggle when they meet the strong teams they will meet in the final preliminary round. Coach Hwang said, “You need to be bold when entering the attacking area. It seems like there aren’t many combinations or decisive actions.”