S. Korea coach thanks players for sacrifice in winning ‘most important match’ of year

For South Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo, his team's World Cup qualification match against Iraq on Tuesday night was "the most important match of the year." That's saying something, considering South Korea played the top continental tournament, the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup, in February, and there are six more World Cup qualifying matches left. And Hong said it took a complete team effort to pull out a 3-2 win victory at home, especially from second-half substitutes, at Yongin Mireu Stadium in Yongin, some 40 kilometers south of Seoul. Oh Se-hun, Oh Hyeon-gyu and Lee Jae-sung each scored a goal for South Korea's third straight win in Group B of the third round in the Asian World Cup qualification tournament. It came on the heels of a 2-0 win over Jordan in Amman last Thursday, and Hong said he couldn't have asked for a better showing from his team in the short October window. "In terms of organization and chemistry, players in the starting lineup did a great job. And it was also great to see s ubstitutes make sacrifices themselves," Hong said at his postmatch press conference. "I think that kind of culture is taking root in this team and we're learning as we go forward." Hong made a couple of notable changes to the starting lineup from the Jordan match. A 21-year-old midfielder Bae Jun-ho received his first international start after an impressive showing off the bench last week, while Oh Se-hun started ahead of Joo Min-kyu in the striker position. Bae assisted Oh's goal in the 41st minute, as South Korea broke through after failing to generate dangerous opportunities for a long stretch. "I think Bae Jun-ho might have felt a bit nervous, and I told him to just relax and play like he normally does," Hong said. "I told Se-hun the same thing and said he shouldn't try to do too much." Iraq had one more shot attempt than South Korea, 8-7, though South Korea handily won the possession battle, 76-24. Hong attributed that to his team's lack of penetration compared with the last match. "We weren't as ef ficient as we should have been, considering our advantage in possession numbers," Hong said. "It's an area of improvement for us going forward." Though South Korea conceded multiple goals in a match for the first time in the third round, Hong praised the work of center back Cho Yu-min, who is trying to establish himself as the new partner for Kim Min-jae. Hong cycled through two different partners for Kim in the first two matches of this round, but Cho has now played alongside Kim in consecutive matches. "He played extremely well in the past two matches," Hong said. "I think we allowed those two goals tonight not because of any defensive issues, but because of a lapse in concentration. Although Cho played well this month, I can't tell you right now who will be playing next to Min-jae in November. Everyone will be competing for that opportunity." With South Korea winning matches and playing well in the process, once-angry football fans here appeared to have turned a page. Hong was lustily booed before, du ring and after his first match back in charge in September against Palestine, with supporters voicing their displeasure over the way the Korea Football Association (KFA) hired Hong in July. The sports ministry's probe into the KFA has unearthed little, other than that while the football federation might have broken rules, it wasn't bad enough to have Hong's contract voided. Hong was not booed Tuesday night in Yongin. Asked how he felt about fans' reaction this time, Hong offered a smile and said, "I don't know why people didn't boo." Source: Yonhap News Agency