Will coach Hwang Sun-hong wash away the pain from the match against Uzbekistan? As a coach, he took the opportunity to avenge the pain suffered by Uzbekistan during his time as a player.
The Asian Games national team led by coach Hwang Seon-hong will play the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games men’s soccer semifinal against Uzbekistan at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China at 9 p.m. on the 4th (Korean time).
This is a return match that took place after 5 years. At the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, the national team led by coach Kim Hak-beom clashed with Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals. At that time, Uzbekistan brought the national team to the brink of elimination. The national team, which took the lead thanks to Hwang Ui-jo’s first goal in the 4th minute of the first half, gave up an equalizer to Zarolidin Masharipov, and Hwang Ui-jo scored a runaway goal, but gave up a comeback by conceding goals to Ikromzon Alibayev in the 8th and 10th minutes of the second half.
In the 30th minute of the second half, when the national team was losing, Hwang Ui-jo scored the equalizer, bringing the game back to square one. There was no winner for 90 minutes, and it went into overtime. Even in overtime, scoring was not easy. It was only in the 13th minute of the second half of extra time, right before a penalty kick, that Hwang Hee-chan scored the winning goal from a penalty kick, winning 4-3 and advancing to the semifinals.
Coach Hwang Seon-hong also met Uzbekistan at the Asian Games when he was a player. We met 29 years ago in the semifinals of the 1994 Hiroshima Games. But it wasn’t a very good memory. Coach Hwang Seon-hong lost to Uzbekistan and finished the tournament in the semifinals.
In this tournament, coach Hwang Seon-hong played legendary games. In the first match of the group stage against Nepal, he scored 8 goals and won 11-0. Coach Hwang’s eight goals are the record for most goals in A-match history and have not yet been broken.
The national team, which defeated Oman 2-1 in the second game, lost 0-1 to Kuwait in the third game, but succeeded in advancing to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals against Korea and Japan, Coach Hwang won 3-2 with multiple goals. They met Uzbekistan in the semifinals with momentum, but the offensive power they showed throughout the tournament did not shine, with Ha Seok-joo’s shot hitting the goal post.
In this situation, goalkeeper Cha Sang-gwang’s fatal mistake led to the goal being conceded.
Opposing striker Azamat Abduraimov made the so-called ‘snap’ mistake of sending a mid-range shot near the halfway line through the crotch, conceding a goal, which became the winning goal and the national team lost 0-1. The penalty for losing the defense due to one mistake in a one-goal battle was elimination from the tournament.레모나토토
In the 3rd and 4th place match, they met Kuwait, who were in the same group in the group stage, and lost 0-1 this time, ending up with no medal. Since military exemption was in place at the time, many players had to go to the military after the shock loss against Uzbekistan
Director Hwang Seon-hong probably knows the pain of 29 years ago better than anyone else. After the quarterfinals against China on the 1st, coach Hwang Sun-hong expressed caution, saying, “Uzbekistan is quite straight-forward, powerful and energetic. If they fight with strength, it can be quite difficult. We need to prepare well tactically.”
However, we continue to emphasize mental strength to our players in order to avoid repeating mistakes. Coach Hwang Seon-hong said, “The best enemy is within ourselves. We must never let down our guard and have confidence, but we must also take a step back and look at it. We will prepare well so that we can reach the finals,” and ordered the players to never be complacent.
Just as a single mistake led to defeat, this is to prevent the team from accidentally conceding a goal and losing to Uzbekistan this time. Uzbekistan, a strong national team in each age group, is considered one of the favorites to win this tournament with its solid physical strength and straightforward soccer. This is a mountain that must be overcome for Hwang Seon-hong, who is heading toward his third consecutive Asian Games victory.
A lot of attention is focused on whether coach Hwang Sun-hong will be able to completely wash away the pain he suffered during his time as a player by defeating Uzbekistan.