Bento “It would have been nice if we had been with Hwang Hee-chan until the end… we will find the best solution”
Jung Woo-young (33, Al Sadd), the ‘core of the midfield’ of the national soccer team, will miss the friendly match once morest Paraguay on the 10th.
At the official press conference held online on the 9th, the day before the match once morest Paraguay, national team coach Paulo Bento said, “Jung Woo-young will not play tomorrow.
“I don’t think I’m in good condition to compete,” he said.
Jung Woo-young, the national team’s main midfielder, played full-time consecutively once morest Brazil on the 2nd and Chile on the 6th.
But following that, I felt muscle fatigue, so I continued recovery training for 8-9 days.
Bento said, “It remains to be seen which player will replace Jung Woo-young.
We will also monitor the progress of Jung Woo-young’s recovery and see if he can return to the game once morest Egypt on the 14th.”
In addition, Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), one of the main players of the national team, also entered Nonsan Training Center on the same day to receive basic military training.
Hwang Hee-chan also started in both matches and played an active role, including scoring the opening goal in the match once morest Chile (2-0 win).
Bento said, “Hwang Hee-chan is an important player for the team, and it would have been good if we had been together until the end as this call is so important in preparation for the World Cup.” After expressing his regret, “I will find the optimal solution.
“I think it will be an opportunity for other players,” he said.
The national team is continuing an evaluation match once morest Uruguay, the first opponent of the Qatar World Cup group stage, with South American teams.
Filling in the gaps of Hwang Hee-chan and Jung Woo-young, as well as stabilizing the defense, is considered as the national team’s task.
Coach Bento said, “I will do my best in this match,” said Bento, “I will do my best to improve the parts that need to be improved, continue the good parts, and bring regarding good results.”
He said, “There is no perfect game,” he said, referring to the defense-related point that was uneasy even following a complete win over Chile.
He emphasized, “There are things we can improve on even in games that we win, and there are things we do well in games that we lose.”
When asked regarding the preparation of ‘Plan B’ in preparation for the absence of ‘irreplaceable’ resources such as Son Heung-min (Tottenham) and Kim Min-jae (Fenerbahce), who is currently injured, Bento replied, “There is still a little time until the World Cup.”
He added, “It’s not at all that other players aren’t doing it, but there’s no denying that Kim Min-jae is a huge player who has a huge impact on our team in terms of offense.”
With the exception of Hwang Hee-chan, who left, coach Bento was cautious regarding the possibility of using a player who had not yet had a chance to play among the 28 people being called.
He said, “There are several issues in this convening, such as Hwang Hee-chan’s military training, Kim Young-kwon (Ulsan)’s physical condition, and Kim Jin-soo’s (Jeonbuk) rehabilitation.
We plan to appoint them in consideration of the players’ abilities, condition, and game situation comprehensively,” he said. .
/yunhap news
