It’s Hwang Sun-hong who’s bringing out the foreign flavor.
The South Korea U-23 Olympic football team, led by Hwang Sun-hong, will take on Kyrgyzstan U-23 in the second match of Group B of the 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup Qualifiers at the Changwon Football Center at 8 p.m. on Monday.
The starting lineups have been announced. South Korea will start with Kim Jung-hoon, Cho Sung-kwon, Cho Woo-je, Kwon Hyuk-kyu, Kim Shin-jin, Jung Sang-bin, Baek Sang-hoon, Park Chang-woo, Oh Jae-hyuk, Lee Tae-seok and Hong Yun-sang.
There are 12 players on the bench, including Cho Hyun-taek, Min Kyung-hyun, Lee Sang-hyuk, Uhm Ji-seong, Heo Yul, Baek Jong-beom, Kang Hyun-mook, Son Seong-kwan, Lee Jin-yong, Jeon Byung-kwan, Lee Hyun-joo, and Shin Song-hoon.
For Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Nurlanbekov, Christian Brausmann, Elaman Akilbekov, Adillet Nulan Ulu, Nurdurot Stalbekov, Nurbol Baktybekov, Allen Shashenbekov, Eldiyar Zarifbekov, Vern Mek Kimy, Ermek Kenzebayev, and Erbol Atabayev will start.
Huang Sunhong is a busy man. Before the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, which kick off in the middle of this month, she has another competition under her belt. She is currently competing at the 2024 U-23 Asian Cup in Qatar next April and the first qualifier for the 2024 Paris Olympics in July.
The 2024 U-23 Asian Cup will be contested by the 11 top-ranked nations from each of the 11 qualifying groups A through K, the top four second-ranked nations and hosts Qatar, for a total of 16 nations. The tournament will also serve as the final qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with the top three qualifying directly to the Games and the fourth-placed team playing a playoff against the top four African qualifiers.
In Group B, South Korea will play Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar. The match against Qatar, who qualified as hosts, will not count towards their qualification ranking. South Korea hopes to win back-to-back games against Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar to qualify as the top seed.
However, the loss to Qatar must be taken into account. Hwang Sun-hong’s starting lineup of Heo Yul, Uhm Ji Sung (Gwangju), Kang Hyun-mook (Gimcheon), Oh Jae-hyuk (Jeonbuk), Jeon Byung-kwan (Daejeon), Lee Jin-yong (Daegu), Lee Tae-seok (Seoul), Cho Sung-kwon (Gimpo), Cho Woo-je (Busan), Min Kyung-hyun (Incheon), and Baek Jong-beom (Seoul) came up short. It was a shock for South Korea, which is looking to win the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, to go down on its knees at home to a Qatar team that would have been demotivated by its qualification. It was even more disappointing because it was a poor result.
The loss to Qatar can lead to a drop in confidence. It could have repercussions not only for the Asian Cup qualifiers, but also for the upcoming 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. The first order of business for Hwang will be to bounce back. To do that, they need to win the games against Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar, both of which are multi-goal wins. This is no mean feat, as both are considered underdogs on the Asian stage.
Kyrgyzstan is inferior to South Korea in objective power. As such, they are likely to be heavily outnumbered in defense and rely heavily on counterattacks. South Korea will need their offense to open the scoring after being silent against Qatar. The encouraging part is that ‘foreigners’ Jung Sang-bin (Minnesota) and Kwon Hyuk-kyu (Celtic) will start. The addition of these two players will sharpen up the offense and create more chances. Lee Hyun-joo (Wesenwiesbaden), who was a substitute in the last game, will start on the bench.
Hwang Seon-Hong Ho is trying to win his third consecutive Asian Games and become the world’s first player to qualify for 10 consecutive Olympics. Despite the unfavorable trend, he still has to prove himself on the field. Today’s match against Kyrgyzstan could be the start of that 먹튀검증.