Korea to Olympics with hard-fought win

Hong Yun-sang

Opens the scoring early in the first half off a Jung Sang-bin cross.
Kyrgyz offense struggles to capitalize on missed chances

The South Korean men’s national soccer team, led by head coach Hwang Sun-hong, 토토사이트

moved to the top of their group with a win over Kyrgyzstan in their first Asian qualifier for the Paris Olympics.

Hwang’s U-22 men’s team

Defeated Kyrgyzstan 1-0 on Monday at the Changwon Football Center Main Stadium in the second

match of their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup 2024 qualifying Group B campaign.

South Korea now sits atop Group B with one win and three points. Kyrgyzstan dropped to third place in Group B with a 1-1 draw and one point.

South Korea lost 0-2 to Qatar in the first leg, but the result of the first leg does not affect the group standings as Qatar will automatically qualify for next year’s tournament as hosts.

South Korea will play Myanmar, which has one point from a 1-1 draw, in the third round at the same venue on Nov. 12. South Korea only needs to draw with Myanmar to qualify.

The top 11 teams from the 11 first-place groups, the top four teams from the second-place

groups and host Qatar will advance to the U-23 Asian Cup in April/May next year. The Asian Cup

will also serve as the final qualifier for the Asian Games in Paris next year. The winner, runner-up

and third-place finishers from the Asian Cup will go directly to Paris, while the fourth-place finisher

will have to play a playoff against the fourth-place finisher from the African final qualifier for a spot

in the Olympic Games.

South Korea, who lost to Qatar in the first round, brought out their best roster on the day,

including overseas players Jung Sang-bin and Kwon Hyuk-kyu, and took the lead in the third minute.

Park Chang-woo

A right flank defender, played a forward penetrating pass to Jung Sang-bin. After breaking through the flank, he sent a sharp cross to Munjeon. Hong Yun-sang, who was racing toward Munjeon, got a foot on it and rattled the net.

In the 17th minute, South Korea missed a golden opportunity. Midfielder Oh Jae-hyuk sent an early cross to Munjeon and Kim Shin-jin tried to head it in, 스포츠토토 but the ball went wide of the goal.

South Korea also missed a scoring chance in the 28th minute. On a corner kick, defender Cho Woo-jae headed a loose ball into the box, but her shot went wide.

The disappointment continued in the final minutes of the first half. In the 41st minute, during a counterattack, Oh Jae-hyuk received a pass from Hong Yun-sang, but his shot was deflected

off the goal line by the opposing defense. In the 43rd minute, Baek Sang-hoon’s header following

a cross from Park Chang-woo also went wide of the goal. The first half ended with Korea leading 1-0.

In the second half, Kyrgyzstan battled hard for an equalizer. Jung Sang-bin was substituted for

Lee Hyun-joo after a series of rough fouls. Kyrgyzstan also tried to score through frontline striker Toktosunov Dastanbek.

In the 25th minute of the second half, Korea came close to scoring. Defender Cho Sung-kwon was brought down in a tussle with Dastanbek, but no foul was called. Dastanbek’s right-footed shot

was saved by goalkeeper Kim Jung-hoon.

Hwang showed his determination to score more goals by removing Hong Yun-sang and Kim Shin-jin and inserting Uhm Ji-sung and Heo Yul.

Kyrgyzstan pushed forward in stoppage time, 스포츠토토맨 but were unable to find the equalizer and the game ended with a 1-0 Korean victory.