‘We want to win, we need to win, we will be the winning team after 90 minutes’…must win against Barça to break ‘three-game losing streak’
Head coach Hwang Sun-hong is determined to win against Bahrain.
The Chinese Under-24 National Team will take on Kuwait in their first group game of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at 7:30 p.m. (local time) today at Jinhua Stadium in China.
The Asian Games were initially planned to be an under-23 competition. However, last year’s event was postponed by a year due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). As a result, the soccer age was raised to 24 instead of 23.
South Korea won gold at the 2018 Jakarta Palembang and 2014 Incheon Asian Games. Hwang Sun-hong will be looking for a third straight title in Hangzhou.
He will be joined by Lee Kang-in (22-Paris Saint-Germain), who is expected to play a key role. “It’s frustrating that I haven’t heard when he will join us yet,” Hwang said at the National Training Center (NFC) in Paju before his departure on Thursday.
Fortunately, the worst-case scenario of missing the group stage was avoided. PSG announced that Lee will arrive in China on the 21st after the UEFA Champions League (UCL) group stage match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Borussia Dortmund on the 20th. As such, Lee could make his debut as early as the third group game against Bahrain on the 24th.
Hwang Sun-hong arrived in Hangzhou for the final match on Nov. 16. The Asian Games squad traveled to Jinhua to train, hoping to get a win against Kuwait.
“It’s the first game, we want to win, and we have to win,” Huang told reporters before training on the 18th. I believe we can win if we keep the atmosphere good and have patience. We will reward you with a good result, so please give us a lot of support.”
The soccer team’s match will also be the first for all Korean sports. “It’s a lot of pressure,” said Hwang, “but the whole country’s status is at stake. We will do our best to represent our country together with the players. We will try to give them good energy.”
Hangzhou boasts sweltering temperatures for an evening game. It was still over 30 degrees at 7:00pm during training. “There is a lot of sweating,” said Huang. We are also thinking about cooling down during the game. We’ve prepared, but it’s a short period of time, so we’re all in the same position. We have to adapt to the conditions during the qualifiers.”
On the state of the squad, Hwang said, “We don’t have many injuries. We’re in good shape, and if we keep it up today and tomorrow, we’ll have a good game.”
“We’re thinking about a lot of things,” he said of his offense. The game might not go our way. It’s going to be a tough game, but we’re going to try to win it outright. At the end of the 90 minutes, we want to make sure that Korea is the victorious team.”
On his first opponent, Bahrain, he said: “It’s not very detailed, but it’s very straight and powerful. They fight hard and it can be difficult if you get caught off guard. It’s all about how prepared we are and how calm we are.”바카라사이트
“The other two matches are important, but the first one is the most important. We will give it our all tomorrow and the rest will follow.”
On the addition of Lee Kang-in, he said, “I hope he can play a lot of games in good form. It would be great if he is 100 percent fit,” he said, adding, “Of course, we will check on Lee Kang-in’s game.” Coach Hwang said, “Lee Kang-in has the same schedule as the team. He will arrive at 6 p.m. on the 21st and we will check his condition closely.”
“It’s just one shot out of seven, and you have to do everything in every game. But more than that, it’s about being calm under pressure. We’re going to work on the psychological aspect and that’s what we’re emphasizing the most.”
