Cho Young-wook, who scored a multi-goal performance in his first Asian Games match, wants Lee Kang-in to join the team sooner rather than later.
Head coach Hwang Sun-hong’s Asian Games squad cruised to a 9-0 victory in their first men’s football Group E match at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Jinhua Sports Center Stadium in Jinhua, China, on Monday (June 19). Led by a hat trick from Jung Woo-young (Stuttgart) and a multi-goal performance from Cho Young-wook (Gimcheon Sangmu), Baek Seung-ho (Jeonbuk Hyundai), Uhm Won-sang (Ulsan Hyundai), Park Jae-yong (Jeonbuk), and Ahn Jae-joon (Bucheon FC) added a goal apiece to complete a record-breaking first game.
Earlier, the Asian Games squad was criticized for its lack of weight up front. Ahn Jae-joon and Park Jae-yong were both players who hadn’t shown much in the K League 1, and Cho Young-wook played for FC Seoul but joined K League 2 Gimcheon Sangmu for military service this season.
Compared to the previous Jakarta-Palembang 2018 tournament, which featured an ultra-luxury attacking lineup of Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur), Hwang Hee-chan (Salzburg), Hwang Eui-jo (Gamba Osaka), and Lee Seung-woo (Elas Verona), the team had a lot less weight.
However, in their first match of the tournament, they put on a fireworks show, scoring a whopping nine goals against Kuwait to take a strong step towards their third consecutive title. It was especially encouraging that the victory came despite Kuwait playing a suffocating five-man defense, as ace Lee Kang-in was still unavailable due to a request from his club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
Cho Young-wook, who started alongside Ko Young-joon (Pohang Steelers) in the front two, was a key contributor to the victory with a multi-goal performance. In the 19th minute of the first half, with the score at 1-0, Cho grabbed a rebound off the goalkeeper’s hand and slammed it home with his right foot.
In the 7th minute of the second half, when the score was 5-0, she passed to Uhm Won-sang from the left flank for an assist. Then, in the 29th minute, she completed her multi-goal performance with a left-footed shot to make it 7-0.
When we met in the post-match mix zone, despite the big win, Cho said, “I have to tell him to come back as soon as possible,” and expressed his hope that Lee Kang-in, who couldn’t make it, would join him soon.
“The stadium is a bit far away from Hangzhou, in a small city called Jinhua, so I didn’t expect so many spectators to come. I felt very good as a player and as a Korean national because I could see the Korean flag all over the stadium, and I think it definitely gave the players strength, and I think we were able to get a good result.” He first thanked the fans for coming to the stadium.
He went on to say that despite his multi-goal performance, he was disappointed that he was unable to capitalize on many of his scoring chances. “I still think I should have scored one more,” Cho said, “I’ll think of it as saving one. I had three goals as my goal, but I haven’t scored three goals yet, so I’ll try to score three goals first and then set a goal again.” 메이저사이트
He also vowed not to let his guard down in Game 2. “After the game, the coach said that we should definitely be confident, but we should forget about everything else and prepare again,” Cho said. The players agreed. When we came out of the locker room now, we all said the same thing. We’re looking forward to the rest of the matches and we’re going to play a good game like today.”
For Lee Kang-in, who watched the match from Paris, he begged to come back. “After the match, he was texting me. He said he could go a little slower, but that’s not even an option. I had to text him to come quickly,” he laughs.