The Korean Asian Games squad for the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games has been unveiled.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) unveiled the jersey numbers of the squad for the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games on its official social media accounts on Monday.
The team, led by Hwang, departed for Hangzhou via Incheon International Airport on Nov. 16 and is currently training locally to prepare for their first match against Kuwait on Nov. 19. After sweating it out in Changwon, Gyeongnam, earlier this month, Hwang traveled to the National Football Training Center (NFC) in Paju, Gyeonggi-do, on the 13th for final training before arriving in Hangzhou.
The team will play its first group game against Middle Eastern powerhouse Kuwait at 8:30 p.m. on the 19th at China Jinhua Stadium, followed by the second group game against Southeast Asian nation Thailand on the 21st at the same time. On the 24th, they will play their final game against Bahrain in the Middle East at the same time.
Ahead of the first match, the squad was unveiled. Lee Kang-in, who has yet to join the team from Paris Saint-Germain, has been assigned the number 18, which he wears with the senior national team, while captain Baek Seung-ho wears the number 8, which he wears with his club, Jeonbuk Hyundai.
Jo Young-wook and Jung Woo-young will wear the numbers 10 and 7, respectively, symbolizing the team’s core players. Cho Young-wook has 78 caps for his country’s senior national team and has been a standout for Gimcheon Sangmu this season with 13 goals and five assists. Jung Woo-young joined Stuttgart from Freiburg ahead of the season and has started all three of his matches for the club, recording one assist.
Hong Hyun-seok (Gent), who has been on fire in Belgium, wears number six, while wildcard additions Park Jin-seob (Jeonbuk Hyundai) and Seol Young-woo (Ulsan Hyundai) have been assigned numbers four and 19, respectively.
South Korea will be attempting to win an unprecedented third consecutive men’s soccer title at the Asian Games. The team previously won back-to-back gold medals in Incheon in 2014 and Jakarta-Palembang in 2018. In Incheon, despite the absence of star striker Son Heung-min due to opposition from his former club Bayer Leverkusen in Germany, Kim Shin-wook, Son Jun-ho and Lim Chang-woo rallied to defeat Japan in the quarterfinals and Thailand in the semifinals, before beating South Korea 1-0 in the final, thanks to Lim Chang-woo’s game-winning goal just before the end of extra time, to win their first gold medal since 1986.
Then, in Jakarta-Palembang, Son Heung-min arrived as a wild card on the day of the first match of the tournament, and the team won the gold medal with an ultra-stacked roster that included Lee Seung-woo, Hwang Hee-chan, and Cho Hyun-woo, all of whom competed at the World Cup in Russia the same year. After nearly losing to Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals, South Korea went on to beat Vietnam in the quarterfinals and Japan 2-1 in the final to win the title in dramatic fashion. In particular, Son Heung-min was granted a special exemption from military service, which paved the way for his long run at Tottenham.
However, Lee won’t be with the national team from the start of the tournament. Lee will arrive in China on Oct. 20 after his club, French champions Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), hosts Borussia Dortmund (Germany) in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League.
“I was informed that he will join us after the Champions League on the 20th. When I arrive in China, it will be in the evening of the 21st, but I will carefully examine his physical condition and other things to decide when to put him in.” Hwang said, “His injury is said to have recovered, but he hasn’t played yet. I think we should watch the Champions League match (against Dortmund) on the 20th to judge his physical condition,” Hwang said, revealing his concerns about Lee’s availability.카지노
South Korea will face Kuwait, Thailand, and Bahrain in the group stage. Kuwait and Bahrain are not the top teams in the Middle East, but they are good, and Thailand is the best team in Southeast Asia, so it can be said that the grouping is not good. Of course, it’s not a bad group, so advancing to the round of 16 shouldn’t be difficult.
The problem comes in the round of 16. If South Korea finishes first in Group E, they will play the second-place team in Group D for a spot in the quarterfinals, which consists of Japan, Palestine, and Qatar. Japan is bringing a large number of university students to the tournament. It is widely believed that this is not the first team of the U-24 national team. However, at the last Jakarta-Palembang tournament, they finished as runners-up to South Korea with a squad full of top-notch players from the university level, including Hayase Ueda, who now plays for Feyenoord in the Netherlands.
Qatar is also a force to be reckoned with. They shocked Korea with a 2-0 victory in their U-23 Asian Cup 2024 qualifier in Changwon on June 6, and are expected to bring that same team to the Asian Games.
Of course, South Korea will be fielding its best U-24 team, which includes wildcards Baek Seung-ho, Seol Young-woo, and Park Jin-seop, rather than the U-22 team that lost to Qatar, but with Qatar confident of a comeback, Hwang will have to plan for a round of 16 matchup with either Japan or Qatar in mind.
With a number of variables, including Lee Kang-in’s arrival, to be resolved, and the squad numbers revealed, there will be plenty of interest to see if Hwang can lead South Korea to a third consecutive Asian Games gold medal, starting with their first match against Kuwait on Aug. 19.
Hangzhou Asian Games Men’s Soccer Team (22 players)
GK : Lee Kwang-yeon (1), Min Sung-joon (12), Kim Jung-hoon (21)
DF : Seol Young-woo (19), Park Kyu-hyun (22), Lee Jae-ik (5), Lee Han-beom (14), Park Jin-seop (4), Hwang Jae-won (2), Choi Jun (3), Kim Tae-hyun (16)
MF: Cho Young-wook (10), Baek Seung-ho (8), Jung Ho-yeon (15), Hong Hyun-seok (6), Song Min-gyu (17), Jung Woo-young (7), Ko Young-joon (13), Lee Kang-in (18), Um Won-sang (11)
FW: Park Jae-yong (9), Ahn Jae-joon (20)