“More excitement than fear…the goal is to raise it to the top of the team”
“I want to challenge with my own skill and play style. I want to compete with detail.”
Lee So-dam, 27, midfielder of the Korean women’s soccer team wearing the 2021 season’s US Women’s Football League (NWSL) Sky Blue FC uniform, expressed his determination.
Debuting in the women’s unemployment soccer WK League at Sports Toto in 2015, Sodam Lee, who has been running at Incheon Hyundai Steel since 2017, ended his contract with the club at the end of last year and entered the US league as a free agent (FA).
Lee So-dam is the second Korean female soccer player to advance to the NWSL following the previous fall when he joined Western New York Flash in 2016.
In a phone call with Yonhap News on the 6th, Lee So-dam said, “It is a dream I have always had in my heart since I was a child,” and “I feel so good that I cannot express it.”
He said, “I knew how high the wall of the overseas league was, and I was wondering if I could go. But now, when the contract with Hyundai Steel was over, I thought I had to challenge myself before it was too late and when my skills were good.” The FC gave me a good offer, and above all, I decided to transfer because it was a team that really wanted me.”
In Korea, Sodam Lee is a player who shows his presence. Not only the WK League, but also the Korean national team.
He took the lead in winning Korea by scoring a tie in the 2010 FIFA Women’s Under-17 (U-17) Women’s World Cup Final with Japan. He went through the age-specific national team and played in 58 A-match matches in the adult national team and scored 6 goals. Has been recorded.
But in the American league, the position is quite different. As a challenger, he must reveal himself anew in a new environment.
Lee So-dam, who has fear but is more excited, expressed anticipation, saying, “It feels like I’m back when I was young because I think I’m running for a new challenge and again.”
“It’s different in physical condition from foreign players, but my strength is that I have good mobility. They also have detail that they don’t have.” “Even if there are parts that are pushed in strength and speed, if you show a different style of soccer, you will win. I wonder if there is this. I will try to compete with detail.”
In the wake of the 2020 season’s novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), the NWSL schedule was changed or reduced, and Skyblue FC remained in the middle of the last year’s cup tournament and fall series.
In the cup competition in which eight teams participated, it advanced to the quarterfinals, and in the fall series, it ranked fourth out of nine teams.
In the 2021 season, Lee So-dam’s goal is to raise the team to the top.
“I want to help the team get to the top even though I’m dedicated,” he said, “I want to be a player who helps the team by showing my skills. At the end of the season,’You did well like the original player’,’A player essential to the team. It would be nice to hear the evaluation of’da’.”
Skyblue FC will start the 2021 pre-season next month. NWSL will hold the cup competition this April and the regular league will start in mid-May.
Lee So-dam, who is preparing to travel to the United States through personal training and English studies, is scheduled to leave the country by the end of January when the visa issuance is completed.
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