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| Jung Woo-young and Lee Dong-jun (center) of the Korean national soccer team, led by coach Paulo Bento, are training at the Nippas Mitsuzawa Stadium in Yokohama, Japan on the afternoon of the 23rd. (Provided by Korea Football Association) 2021.3.24/News1 |
There was no Son Heung-min (Tottenham), and Hwang Ui-jo (Bordeaux) was also missing. There is a growing interest in how the Korean national football team coach Paulo Bento will form an offensive squad in a match against rival Japan.
Korea, led by manager Bento, will play against Japan at 7:20 pm on the 25th at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, Japan.
This is the first time a friendly match A will be held with Japan after a confrontation (0-3 loss) in Sapporo, Japan in August 2011. Since 2011, the EAFF E-1 Championship (formerly East Asian Cup) has only played 4 times, and Korea has recorded 2 wins, 1 draws and 1 loss.
Korea’s overall career record against Japan and Korea was 79 with 42 wins, 23 draws and 14 losses, with Korea in the lead. By counting only the away games held in Japan, they faced 30 times and were quite ahead with 16 wins, 8 draws and 6 losses.
This game is more than just a friendly match. It is the first match of national team A to be held this year, and is the only match to be held ahead of the 2nd regional qualifier of the 2022 International Football Federation (FIFA) Qatar World Cup Asia, which has been postponed until June.
It’s a “real-life evaluation match,” but Bento’s manager is thinking about how to match the attacking combination with the missing foreign players such as Son Heung-min, Hwang Hee-chan (Leipzig), Lee Jae-seong (Holstein Kill), Hwang Ui-jo, and Hwang In-beom (Rubin Kazan).
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| Lee Kang-in of the Korean national football team, led by coach Paulo Bento, is training at the Nippas Mitsuzawa Stadium in Yokohama, Japan on the afternoon of the 23rd. (Provided by the Korea Football Association) 2021.3.24/News1 © News1 Reporter Jinhwan Kim |
On the list of national teams, the unique’European’ Lee Kang-in (Valencia) and Jung Woo-young (Freiburg) draw attention to whether they will take a chance in the match against Japan.
Lee Kang-in has played a total of 5 times for National Team A, but most of them have been replaced. He hasn’t scored in five games yet. My team at Valencia recently took a chance by gradually increasing the number of appearances. This is the first time for Jung Woo-young to be selected for the A national team.
In an interview with the Korea Football Association on the 24th, Jung Woo-young expressed anticipation, saying, “I had a lot of good scenes with Kang In. I had good breathing. It would be nice if we played together.”
In addition, it is worth noting whether Na Sang-ho (Seoul), Dong-joon Lee, and Dong-gyeong Lee (Ulsan), who showed good form in the K-League, will be able to take an eye stamp of Bento. The key point is how to use Na Sang-ho, who scored three goals this season after moving to Seoul, and Lee Dong-jun, who also played the role of front-line striker in Ulsan.
Meanwhile, Japanese soccer coach Moriyasu Hajime said at a press conference that day, “Korea is playing a dynamic and aggressive game,” and “We will definitely win against this by running an aggressive game.”