245.
The afternoon of the day of the Black Star of Africa (1) game.
Hunter’s Rest Hotel in Rustenburg, South Africa.
While the Korean national team players were receiving top-class massages, Coach Heo Seong-soo had tea time with Coach Jeong Ye-sung.
It was a long-awaited leisure.
However, their conversation still could not deviate from soccer.
“How are the players?”
“The specialist’s opinion is that about 90% recovery is possible by next week.”
“Who are the injured?”
“No additional serious injuries were discovered afterward.”
“Thank goodness.”
As expected, as it was a round of 16 match, Mexico fought desperately until the end, and the team’s stamina wasted more than expected.
There were also quite a few minor injuries revealed in the medical test conducted after the game.
But the good news was that I was able to fully recover after 3-4 days of rest.
However, there was concern about the condition of Hoyoung, who collided with Marquez at the end of the second half.
Injuries can be visible on the outside, or even if there are no immediate symptoms, they can hide in the body and swell.
If it is the latter, you should get enough rest before the injury worsens.
Therefore, it was important to accurately understand Hoyoung’s condition.
“So what did the specialist say?”
“It is the same. “I think the injury I suffered at the club in March of this year has recurred, so I need to rest for five days.”
“Huh…”
An ankle sprain is unlikely to recur if caught early, but if it receives a large impact from the outside, the risk of recurrence inevitably increases.
Hoyoung’s condition was exactly such a case.
“It is said that Marquez’s tackle went slightly wrong and caused an impact.”
“Holy shit. Still, I need to get treatment first. The World Cup is a World Cup, but if we delay it now, it could become more dangerous later.”
Even if it is okay now, if an ankle sprain is not treated in time, it will have a negative effect on the player because the overall balance of the leg will be broken and the body’s sense of balance will be disturbed.
Even though I couldn’t play, I couldn’t delay treatment.
“That’s a good thing. If Marquez had made up his mind and attacked, he would have been out for a month or two. They say that if the treatment doesn’t slow down, I can definitely play in the next game.”
It was a blessing in disguise.
However, what Seongsu Heo was more worried about was the semifinals rather than the quarterfinals.
‘During the quarterfinals, physical strength will be quite high.’
The quarterfinals were scheduled to be held at the Johannesburg Stadium, which is over 1,700 meters high.
In other words, even if they won the quarterfinals, what happened next was the problem.
‘The semifinals will be twice as difficult. No matter how strong Woo Ho-young is, he can’t handle all those games alone.’
This was because there were only three days of rest between the quarterfinals and semifinals.
“There’s nothing we can do. “First of all, remove Hoyoung from the starting list and exclude him from training, and have him only do light exercise to prevent his body from stiffening.”
“All right.”
Just as important was the role of other players.
His colleagues had to hold on until Hoyoung recovered his stamina.
and.
“Please…”
Director Heo Seong-su hoped and hoped.
I hope that the United States will come out on top.
And that night.
The round of 16 match between the United States and Ghana was held at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg.
The United States took the lead thanks to Landon Donovan’s first goal.
It was an upset that overturned expectations that Ghana would win by a landslide.
But the surprise did not last long.
Just before the end of the first half, Ghana’s top striker Asamoah Gyan scored the equalizer with his quick legs.
Moreover, it did not end there.
Ghana used the momentum to score an additional goal in the second half and succeeded in coming back, and as the decisive blow, Essien and Gian counterattacked and scored the decisive goal just before the end of the game.
All three goals came from counterattacks.
[With this, Korea will face Ghana in the quarterfinals. There were many opinions before the game that Ghana would come up, but it is true that it is a bit burdensome to see it actually happen. We were hoping for the United States.]
[It is true that Ghana is more difficult to deal with than the United States. This is a very strong team in terms of strength and speed. Therefore, we need to make up the defense with fast players.]
Ghana, the black star of Africa.
They were much stronger than I thought.
Michael Essien, Ghana’s best player of all time, took charge of the midfield and had the advantage of controlling the tempo of the game and allowing the attackers to use their quick feet to secure a solid finish.
The defense team was all nimble and strong in physical combat, so it seemed difficult to break through just by pushing too hard.
At least that’s what Hoyoung thought.
‘Essien is the biggest problem.’
Chelsea’s central midfielder Michael Essien, who won two EPL titles this season.
A more accurate position is box to box.
Essien was in a position to take responsibility for the team’s finances based on his excellent stamina and activity level, and was evaluated as the strongest central midfielder of the current generation, following in the footsteps of Patrick Vieira.
‘In some ways, they say it’s even more difficult than dealing with Mascherano.’
Mascherano was a defensive midfielder who specialized in defense, while Michael Essien was a box-to-box central midfielder.
The style was completely different.
To put it simply, if Mascherano was the midfield cleaner, Michael Essien was the midfield gangster.
However, he was originally destined not to advance to the World Cup in South Africa.
The future has changed.
If Hoyoung knew it, Essien should have missed the World Cup in South Africa due to a nine-month injury.
However, because of some change, Essien was not injured and participated in the World Cup normally.
And he led the team to safely reach the quarterfinals.
He was never someone to look down on.
In terms of pure power, it is far ahead of Korea.
It was strong even in high altitudes and was evaluated as being one step ahead of Mexico.
Simply put, Nigeria’s upward compatibility.
‘The answer is intelligent linkage play based on high-quality build-up.’
It was a tactic that could be quite effective if Hoyoung led from the center.
However, injuries were a problem.
Although I would receive treatment until the day before the game, the key was whether I could play full time.
The next day, the 27th.
The round of 16 match between Argentina and Uruguay was held at the Johannesburg Stadium.
There was no surprise.
Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuaín each scored one goal to advance to the quarterfinals, and in the match that followed in the evening, Germany survived by narrowly defeating France 2-1.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands put an end to the upset by beating Slovakia 3-1 thanks to Sneijder’s mid-range shot.
Next, there was a big match between Brazil and Spain that attracted attention from all over the world.
There was an analysis that Brazil, which had the advantage of high altitude, would win, but Spain, which was ranked zero to win from the beginning, did not fall easily.
Even though Tiki Taka’s destruction law was revealed, it was not something that could be easily prevented simply by knowing the solution.
And eventually.
The Brazilian national team lost 1-0 after conceding a goal to Iniesta and had to pack their bags.
At the same time, the quarterfinals bracket was completed, but there was something more surprising than that.
〈Korea vs. Ghana〉
〈Netherlands vs. Spain〉
〈Argentina vs. Germany〉
〈Paraguay vs. Switzerland〉
The protagonist was Switzerland, who barely defeated Portugal in a penalty shoot-out.
Cristiano Ronaldo had to end the World Cup with 5 goals.
It was the moment when Woo Ho-young, who scored 9 goals, began his solo career in earnest.
The quarterfinals are just around the corner as the match-up is completed.
The first match is South Korea vs. Ghana.
It was scheduled to start at 8.30pm at the Johannesburg Stadium.
The starting lineups for both teams were announced an hour before the game.
[7/2 (Fri) 〈Korea-Ghana〉 Starting lineup ‘Woo Ho-young’ was excluded from the starting lineup as predicted… He is expected to stand by on the bench as a replacement member and be brought in in case of emergency or in the second half]
The joys and sorrows of both teams are mixed. It was news.
Moreover, Lee Cheong-ryong was also out due to a back injury.
[On the other hand, the Ghanaian national team featured almost elite members. Although one of the main defenders is out due to injury, nothing much changes. The formation was 4-2-3-1.]
[Anthony Annan and Michael Essien were used as defensive midfielders on the third line, Kevin Prince Boateng was placed as an attacking midfielder, and Asamoah Gian was placed at the forefront. I did it. It is completely different from the counterattack tactic shown in the round of 16.]
[Well, it is. It seems like they are trying to bring out the suffocating defense tactic they used against Australia in the Group D match.]
Beep –
Sure enough, Ghana put a lot of pressure on Korea by busy changing formations as soon as the game started.
[They change the formation from 4-3-3 to defend the area.]
[This means they will not give up any gaps.]
When defending, they change the pattern to 4-1-4-1 and use their numerical superiority to attack Korea. was effectively blocked.
This was Ghana’s coach Milovan Rajevac’s strategy.
He originally tried to win with a counterattack tactic using speed, but he hastily changed his strategy after learning that Woo Ho-young was injured.
Since the opposing team changed from a ‘strong team’ to a ‘weak team’, the tactics also changed.
First, having a solid defense and midfield and then attacking with various offensive routes based on that was one of the good ways to take down a weak team.
So Coach Rajevic has planned to completely dominate the game by suffocating Korea.
The calculation was that if they held on tightly to the midfield and second line, they could beat up Korea like a punching bag.
The game actually went like that.
[Michael Essien catches the ball! Ah… He protects the ball by pushing Ki Sung-ryong away.]
[Our players are showing signs of lack of strength and flexibility. It would be better to defend the space more intelligently and create another space to take advantage of the opportunity.]
However, South Korea’s attack did not go as expected.
By the 15th minute of the first half, they were completely out of the fight and gave up the lead to Ghana.
Thanks to Michael Essien’s complete control of the midfield, other players were able to attack with peace of mind.
Everything was easy without Woo Ho-young.
Heo Seong-soo’s South Korea, which chose 4-4-2, was busy turning the ball around to protect possession, let alone thinking about advancing to the second line.
[Ghana has three main offensive options. Counterattack, mid-distance shooting, and penetration play after linking. [When possession of the ball is lost, like now, we have to be most careful about penetration play after linkage.]
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Boateng and Gian’s speedy linkage play led to a major crisis.
Around 30 minutes in the first half.
Boateng’s forward pass was the starting point.
Percussion!
[Ahh, it’s dangerous. In an instant, the back space opened!]
[Lee Jong-su! You have to run until the end!]
Lee Jong-soo was also an expert runner, but he was not as good as Asamoah Gian.
And in the end, the shooting opportunity was allowed.
Crash!
[Oh, it goes in as is. This is Asamoah Gian’s 4th goal in the World Cup.]
[Jeong Seong-yong tried to launch himself, but he was one step late. It’s a shame.]
Heo Seong-su’s expression became distorted.
Originally, the plan was to keep the game scoreless until the first half and then turn the game around by substituting Woo Young in the second half.
The key was how well the other players could endure in the first half, but unfortunately they were unable to stop Ghana’s onslaught.
It would be nice if it stopped here, but I didn’t think that would happen.
Although the situation improved a bit with Park Ji-seok joining the midfield, Ghana’s momentum once they got there didn’t seem to be going down.
That was around the 35th minute of the first half.
“It won’t work.”
I couldn’t wait any longer.
Coach Heo Seong-su became nervous and turned his head towards the bench.
The place where his gaze stopped was Hoyoung’s face.
‘First of all, we have to change the atmosphere.’
Hoyoung’s current physical condition was not perfect, but his injury had fully recovered.
In fact, there was an opinion from a specialist that it was okay to play full time.
However, he was omitted from the starting list due to physical condition.
Seongsu Heo said in a whisper.
“Hoyoung.”
“yes.”
“How is your physical condition?”
“great.”
“Then let’s warm up. The Ghanaians seem to have lost a lot of their stamina.”
“All right.”
Sigh.
When Hoyoung stood up from the bench, the atmosphere in the stadium changed in an instant.