Coach Myung Jae-yong, “I didn’t follow the luck…Impacts on the failure to borrow from Europe”

Myung Jae-yong, the senior coach of the South Korean U-23 national soccer team, who attended the press conference instead of Hwang Sun-hong, who was sent off, cited the failure to recruit players from Europe as the reason for the failure to advance to the Olympic finals.

Coach Myung said he did not have luck with South Korea in the penalty shootout, but he wanted to make it significant that the players tied the game and dragged the game to the penalty shootout even when the game was played with 10 players.

In the meantime, he admitted that the failure to call up players playing in Europe ahead of the tournament affected the team’s overall performance.

The U-23 national soccer team led by head coach Hwang Sun-hong lost 10-11 in the shootout after a 2-2 battle against Indonesia led by head coach Shin Tae-yong in the quarterfinals of the final Asian qualifying round for the 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics at Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar on the 26th (Korea time).

Korea lost two goals in the first half alone, dragging its feet. After giving up the first goal to Raphael Strawiecki, Um Ji-sung induced an own goal against the opponent to tie the match, but gave up the second goal to Strawiecki before the end of the first half.

In the second half, there was even a bad news. Lee Young-joon, who was substituted as a substitute, was sent off for making a foul on his opponent. Korea had to play without a single player from the middle of the second half.

What prolonged Korea’s life was Jung’s golden equalizer. As substitute in the second half, Jung got a pass from Hong Yoon-sang at a counterattack in the 38th minute of the second half and scored the equalizer with a calm right foot shot from the gate.

However, bad news added to Korea before the regular hours ended. This time, Hwang was sent off. When the opponent team attempted a rough tackle on Hwang Jae-won in the seventh minute of extra time in the second half, Hwang strongly protested, and the referee ordered Hwang to leave.

South Korea played the first and second half of extra time with 10 players, leading the game to a penalty shootout. The tie was maintained even after all 10 kickers kicked once, but Lee Kang-hee, Korea’s second kicker, came out in the 12th order and missed the game. Later, Indonesia’s last kicker Arhan succeeded, ending the game with Indonesia’s victory.

Coach Hwang Sun-hong was sent off during the game and could not attend the press conference. Head coach Myung Jae-yong entered the press conference instead of Hwang. 먹튀검증

Coach Myung Jae-yong said, “First of all, congratulations to Indonesia on winning the game. Despite unfavorable circumstances in which our players were dismissed, I would like to place significance on the fact that the players did not give up and did well until the end to score the equalizer. The final penalty shootout had to be left to chance. Such good luck did not come to us at the end.”