South Korea defeats Uzbekistan 2-1 in the quarterfinals
The final will be another Korea-Japan match after the 2018 tournament
Uhm Won-sang’s injury “needs to be checked”
Hwang Sun-hong
The head coach of the Korean men’s soccer team at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, has vowed to win the tournament’s final match against South Korea.
South Korea won the men’s football semifinal against Uzbekistan 2-1 behind a multi-goal performance from Jung Woo-young (Stuttgart) at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China, on Thursday (9 p.m. ET).
With the win, South Korea is just one step away from its third Asian Games gold medal, following Incheon 2014 and Jakarta-Palembang 2018. A first three-game losing streak is on the horizon.
“As expected, it was a difficult game,” said Hwang at the post-match press conference. As always in soccer, you can’t win easily. Our players played with determination. We will give it our all to win the gold medal in the final match.”
The final opponent will be Japan, marking the second consecutive ‘Final Japan-Korea’ match. They will play for gold at the same venue at 9 p.m. on July 7.
“We have to win no matter what,” said Hwang. We knew it would be a tough game, and we were focused until the end, so we were confident that we would win. I’m grateful to the players for trying their best. We will work together and take the last step to win,” he said.
However, it is doubtful that he will be at full strength for the final. In Uzbekistan, Uhm Won-sang (Ulsan Hyundai) was injured after a rough tackle from an opponent. He and other players complained of pain throughout the game due to dangerous tackles and the use of elbows by opponents.
Coach Hwang said,
“I need to check, but I think Uhm Won-sang has some injuries. The rest of the injuries are not serious, but we need to check. We’ve been doing well without any injuries, but there are some unavoidable injuries, so I think we need to check.” 19가이드03
