|
[이데일리 스타in 이석무 기자] Suwon FC striker Lee Seung-woo (24), who announced a splendid revival in the K-League 1 of professional football, has become a big topic in the soccer world whether he will return to the national team.
Lee Seung-woo, who played in the European stage and stepped on the K-League stage wearing the Suwon FC uniform this season, is running on the road to success, leaving his concerns and worries behind. He has established himself as a key offensive player for Suwon FC, scoring 8 goals and 2 assists in 18 K League 1 matches.
Lee Seung-woo is continuing his scoring streak in the last four games, including scoring a key goal in the ‘Suwon Derby’ with Suwon Samsung at the Suwon Sports Complex on the 25th. Suwon FC, which fell to the relegation zone with only 2 draws and 4 losses in 6 matches in June, jumped to 8th place (21 points) with Lee Seung-woo flying in July.
With Lee Seung-woo alive like this, naturally, interest is being drawn to whether he will be re-selected for the national team. Lee Seung-woo, who has always played as an ace in national teams by age, made his senior national team debut on May 28 against Honduras. Since then, he has shown impressive performances by representing the country in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the Asian Games in Jakarta, and the Asian Cup in 2019.
However, he did not get a chance to play in a team belonging to the European stage, and disappeared from the senior national team after the evaluation match against Iran in June 2019. He was not selected for the national team because of his poor performance. Before the Tokyo Olympics, Olympic national team coach Kim Hak-beom called Seung-woo Lee to check his condition, but his appearance was disappointing.
Things are different now. As he continued to play in the K-League 1, his outstanding speed and brilliant individuality were revived. Physical and activity levels that were pointed out as problems have also improved. Criticism of not actively defending is a thing of the past.
Suwon FC manager Kim Do-gyun also said, “I don’t know what (Paulo) Bento will think, but from my point of view, Lee Seung-woo has a lot of potential. is a player “Especially if he has to find a way to attack, he’s well worth taking advantage of.”
The current national team situation is not bad for Lee Seung-woo. FIFA has decided to increase the number of entries per team in the Qatar World Cup from 23 to 26, by a maximum of three.
In Bentuho, where the composition of the main players is to a certain extent, there is room to experiment with the possibilities of new players. It can be said that an opportunity has been opened to look back at Lee Seung-woo, which Bento had been neglecting for a while.
First of all, Lee Seung-woo is highly likely to be selected for the national team at the East Asian Cup to be held in Japan in July. Since it is impossible to call European players for this tournament, the team is composed mainly of K-League players.
If Lee Seung-woo shows impressive performances in the East Asian Cup, etc., it is not an impossible scenario to advance to the finals for the second consecutive World Cup. Lee Seung-woo emphasized, “I always have confidence (for the national team competition),” and emphasized, “I am preparing to confidently play the best I can do.”
