By Kang Dong-hoon = Reporter = “I will do my best with a pavu-chim mindset.”
Hwang Sun-hong, head coach of the Hangzhou Asian Games (AG) men’s soccer team, told reporters before departing for China via Incheon International Airport on Nov. 16. He vowed to fight to the death and win the gold medal without expecting to return home alive.
The Hangzhou AG men’s national soccer team, led by coach Huang Sun-hong-ho, departed for China via Incheon International Airport on Saturday. Of the 22 players named to the final roster, 21, excluding Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), boarded the plane for Hangzhou in plain clothes.
Hwang is determined to make history by winning his third consecutive Asian Games title after winning the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. They are in Group E and will open their campaign against Kuwait on Nov. 19. They will then face Thailand (21st) and Bahrain (24th).
Coach Hwang said, “We know how tough and long it is to win three consecutive AGs. Together with the players, we are determined to do our best to achieve our desired goal by giving it our all,” he said.
“There are still one or two positions that I’m a little bit worried about, but I’ll make a decision soon,” Hwang said about the AG plan. “I didn’t expect Lee Kang-in to join us from the beginning, so I’m not too worried about that because we have a plan in place,” he said. He continued, “It’s going relatively well as planned. There are some things that need to be fine-tuned, but we have two or three days left, and we’ll perfect them in qualifying. We need to improve our conditioning and adaptability through qualifying.”
The timing of Lee Kang-in’s departure has been confirmed. “It was reported that he will join us after the UEFA Champions League (UCL) on the 20th. When he arrives in China, it will probably be in the evening of the 21st, but we will decide when to use him by reviewing various things such as his physical condition.” “His injury is said to have recovered, but he hasn’t played yet, so we need to see his physical condition,” he explained.
When asked if he plans to introduce Lee as soon as possible, assuming he is healthy, Hwang said, “We need to control the timing. When he joins the team, we will calculate at what point he will be in the best condition.” “We will decide when to use him by considering his condition rather than using him quickly,” he said.
“I think we need to talk to the players themselves about how to utilize them. He hasn’t been on the field for a long time, so I’m thinking that we need to look at various things, such as his stamina to play 90 minutes, and decide his position.”카지노사이트
Meanwhile, the AG features U-23 athletes, but the event has been moved up to U-24 after being postponed for a year due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Of the 22 finalists, there are three wild cards that can be drawn regardless of age. The 23 nations were divided into six groups. Only Group D has three nations, while the other five groups (A-B-C-E-F) have four. The top 12 finishers from each group, plus the four best performers from the top three, will determine the winner of the 16-nation tournament.