Hwang Sun-hong will play the final round of good and bad games in an away friendly match against China.
The U-24 national soccer team, led by head coach Hwang Sun-hong, will leave for China through Incheon International Airport at 12 p.m. on the 12th. It is to play two friendly matches against the Chinese Asian Games national team on the 15th and 19th.
Both games will be kicked off at 8:35 p.m. Korean time and will be held at Jinhwa Stadium in Zhejiang Province, where the Hangzhou Asian Games soccer game will be held. This is the first match against the Chinese U-24 national team. In the U-23 showdown, South Korea is leading with 11 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss.
The Asian Games, which will kick off in September, is originally a competition involving the national team under the age of 23. But this time it is an exception. The U-24 national team will be able to play because it has been postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 incident and will be held this year. Three “wild card” players who are not age-limited will also head to Hangzhou.
Hwang Sun-hong will try to win three consecutive Asian Games following Incheon in 2014 and Jakarta-Palembang in 2018. Winning a gold medal will give military service benefits to the team.
Of the 28 players on the call-up list, 23 will leave the country on the same day.
Just before leaving the country, the Korea Football Association announced that Park Kyu-hyun (Dinamo Dresden), who was originally named on the Hwang Sun-hong team’s call-up list, was replaced by the A national team.
In addition, Ahn Jae-joon (Bucheon FC), who was scheduled to go to China together, was excluded from the list due to a recent injury. Oh Jae-hyuk (Jeonbuk Hyundai) and Jung Woo-young (Freiburg) will leave Korea for China tomorrow (13th) due to visa problems. Kim Tae-hyun (Begalta Sendai) will join China directly from Japan tomorrow.
Hwang Sun-hong, who met with reporters before leaving the country, said, “This is the last official call-up. It’s a fine dusting stage. He planned an away warm-up match in China to adapt to the local area. “I will go and adapt well and bring good results,” he said.
He explained in more detail that he used “China” as the venue for the evaluation. “I also recognized Europe,” he said. However, there are not many places that run U-24 teams. There was also Southeast Asia, but I decided to play a warm-up match in China because I thought I needed to adapt to the local area. I also wanted to understand the atmosphere. “I think it will be a good outpost,” he explained.
Regarding Park Kyu-hyun’s move to the 스포츠토토 A national team, Hwang Sun-hong said, “I talked to Jürgen Klinsmann several times. There was also communication with various players such as Jung Woo-young and Lee Kang-in. It’s a situation where we have to understand each other. Park Kyu-hyun decided to send him to the senior national team for now. I decided to help me a lot in September (when the Asian Games are held). We should go with a win-win strategy,” he said.
In addition, when asked about the “roadmap 100 days before the Asian Games,” head coach Hwang Sun-hong said, “It is possible to call up again from the A match period in September.” Officially, this call-up is the last. “When the K League is free in the middle of September, I will ask the coaches for cooperation and spend a day or two with the players,” he said.
Regarding the “wild card” initiative, he said, “I personally have about 10 talent pools. Now, it is in the stage of listening to and referring to the thoughts of the players in the competition while making personal contact. “We have a plan, but nothing has been confirmed.” The final entry for the Asian Games is 22 players, including three goalkeepers and wild cards each.