Early in the morning on the 26th, Korea vs Indonesia, a battle that cannot be abandoned.
▲ Hwang Seon-hong (left), coach of the Korean national football team, and Shin Tae-yong, coach of the Indonesian national team. Yonhap News Korean football ‘legends’ met on the single wooden bridge towards qualifying for the Paris Olympics. In a tight battle in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-23 Asian Cup between coach Hwang Seon-hong (56), who leads the Korean national team, and coach Shin Tae-yong (54 ), which leads Indonesia , one person is bound to fall from the single wooden bridge.
Korea, led by Coach Hwang, defeated Japan 1-0 in the third Group B match of the tournament held at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar on the 22nd. In the 30th minute of the second half, Kim Min-woo headed the right corner kick kicked by Lee Tae-seok with his left foot and scored the winning goal. Lee Tae-seok recorded his third assist in this tournament. As a result, Hwang Seon-hong, who took first in Group B with the three wins in the group stage, will play Indonesia, who took second in Group A, in the quarter-finals at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar. , on the 26th at 2:30 am Korean time.
Shin Tae-yong defeated Australia and ‘powerful’ Jordan to advance to the quarter-finals as 2nd place in Group A (2 wins, 1 loss). Coach Shin emerged as a ‘national hero’ by leading Indonesia, who came top in this year’s AFC U23, to the quarter-finals for the first time ever.
A lot is at stake for both teams in the quarter finals. The top three teams in the competition will be given the right to participate in the Paris Olympics. The fourth-placed team must win the play-off against fourth-placed Guinea in the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations to secure a ticket to Paris. In order to progress to the Olympics, you must win the semi-final. Korea will be participating for the 40th consecutive year since the 1984 Los Angeles Games, and Indonesia will be participating for the first time in 68 years since the 1956 Melbourne Games. If Korea manages to advance, it will make history by becoming the first in the world to participate in 10 consecutive Olympic Games. If Indonesia advances, it will be a monumental event that will go down in the country’s football history.
The two leaders, who once worked together on the national team, face each other in an ironic fate. In terms of objective power, Korea is ahead with a stable defense that did not concede a single goal in the group stage.
But you must not let your guard down. Coach Hwang said immediately after the game, “It’s a real game from now on. Indonesia is not an easy team. “I will prepare well and achieve my goal,” he said, warning, “(Indonesia is) a team that can only win if it prepares.”
Shin Tae-yong launched a sudden counterattack with an organized team and a fast attacker. Marcelino Ferdinand, who scored several goals in the game against Jordan, is considered a target of caution.
Above all, Indonesia’s greatest ‘weapon’ is Director Shin. He has experience leading the national under-20 and under-23 teams, as well as the national A team, so he knows Korean football better than anyone else. This is sure to be uncomfortable for Korea. Coach Shin, who said, “Indonesia’s goal is not to advance to the semi-finals or semi-finals, but to advance to the Olympics,” responded to questions from local media asking for his opinion on the game against his country, saying, “I will not comment.” “The interview will take place after the game,” he said subtly.
Senior Correspondent Lee Ki-cheol
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