‘Again 2019’
The 2023 International Football Federation (FIFA) Under 20 (U-20) World Cup, the Korean cannon team stands on the test bed to advance to the round of 16 against ‘difficult’ France.
The Korean U-20 soccer team, led by coach Kim Eun-joong, will play the first match of Group F against France at Mendoza Stadium in Mendoza, Argentina at 3 a.m. on the 23rd Korea time.
South Korea is behind France and the U-20 national team with 1 win, 3 draws and 4 losses.
Their latest encounter was a 1-3 defeat in a friendly in Spain in March 2019.
In the history of the U-20 World Cup, France won the championship once (2013) and placed fourth (2011), and made the quarterfinals (1997, 2001) and the round of 16 (2017, 2019) twice.
Korea also made steady progress with one runner-up (2019) and 4th place (1983), three times quarterfinals (1991, 2009, 2013) and sixteenth rounds (2003, 2011, 2017).
At the U-20 World Cup stage, Korea and France faced each other twice in the group stage (2-4 loss in 1997 and 1-3 loss in 2011), and Korea lost both.
In the 1997 tournament, while France’s Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet conceded two goals each, Park Jin-seop (Busan I-Park coach) was responsible for two goals and fought hard.
In the 2011 tournament, Kim Young-wook (Daejeon) scored one goal.
In the previous 2019 tournament, France was eliminated in the round of 16, while Korea advanced to the final and won the runner-up, the best ever, and is on the rise.
Coach Kim Eun-joong is carrying the heavy burden of recreating the myth of the runner-up in the 2019 tournament on his shoulders.
Kim Eun-joong’s 21 Taegeuk Warriors are determined to enjoy the joy of winning once again by inheriting the achievements of their seniors four years ago.
Kim Eun-joong, who set passing the group stage as a realistic goal, decided to engage in an all-out battle against France in the first round of group F.
Coach Kim Eun-joong uses the 4-3-3 tactic as the basis for ‘strong pressure and quick turnover’ as a winning strategy.
Before entering Mendoza, Argentina, Kim Eun-joong focused on raising his senses in the real world by undergoing field training for 10 days in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
His national team won 2-1 on the 14th against Winners FC, an amateur team in Sao Paulo, with Lee Seung-jun (Seoul) and Lee Chan-wook (Gyeongnam) scoring.
In the second evaluation match against the Palmeiras U-20 club on the 16th, Lee Seung-won (Gangwon) and Lee Yeong-jun (Gimcheon), who scored multiple goals, won a 3-0 victory.
Lee Seung-jun is also famous as the son of Lee Eul-yong (general manager of the Yongin City Soccer Center), who played a key role in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup semifinals.
In addition, tall defender Kim Ji-soo (Seongnam), who is 192 cm tall and recently received a love call from Brentford in the English Premier League (EPL), is holding the center of the four-back and firmly guarding the back door.스포츠토토
FIFA introduced Kim Ji-soo as Korea’s key player while introducing the first match between Korea and France through its website.
After the match against France, Korea will face Honduras at 6:00 am on the 26th and Gambia at 6:00 am on the 29th to advance to the round of 16.