2023 Asian cup quarterfinals, Australia vs Korea

After narrowly overcoming Saudi Arabia, another challenge awaits South Korea. 

Not as formidable as before, but still considered a powerhouse in Asian football, Korea faced Australia in the quarterfinals.

 

When looking at South Korea's starting lineup, two notable points stand out. 

Firstly, they have reverted to the 3-back formation that surprised everyone in the previous match, overturning expectations.

Secondly, the return of Hwang Hee-chan to the starting lineup provides a significant boost to the attacking line.

Additionally, to provide more attacking prowess, Son Heung-min has been given a freer role as an attacking midfielder, with Lee Jae-sung being rested due to fatigue.

Including Cho Gyu-seong and Lee Kang-in, this lineup essentially features four attackers, making it a highly offensive-oriented starting lineup.

The first half was arguably the best Asian Cup match I've seen so far, without exaggeration. 

One aspect that particularly stood out was the movement upfront, 

which had been a point of criticism previously. 

 

While Australia's tactic of sitting back and waiting for opportunities rather than pressing aggressively surely played a role, the national team's form was indeed impressive. 

 

They created numerous good opportunities throughout the half. 

One notable instance was when Lee Kang-in made a long switch from the right flank to the opposite side, which, although ruled offside, resulted in a cross from Seol Young-woo that Hwang Hee-chan finished.

 

Such scenes were rarely seen in previous matches. 

I believe the return of Hwang Hee-chan to the starting lineup played a significant role in this.

One of Hwang Hee-chan's greatest strengths in the South Korean national team is his ability to carry the ball and break through the opponent's defense, often bypassing 2-3 defenders.

 

With Hwang Hee-chan on the left, working in tandem with Son Heung-min, they naturally created openings on the left flank.

As the defense focused on the left side, space opened up on the right side.

Additionally, Cho Gyu-seong's movements were much improved compared to previous matches.

In particular, his ability to drop back to receive the ball, link up play, and then penetrate forward was notable.

While this is something Cho Gyu-seong is naturally good at,

we haven't seen much of it from him in this tournament until now.

Despite that, South Korea once again conceded the opening goal, 

which was particularly disappointing as it wasn't from a very dangerous situation. 

 

The goal stemmed from a mistake in the backline. 

After dealing with Australia's cross well and needing to clear the ball, 

a misplaced horizontal pass from Hwang In-beom gifted Australia a counterattacking opportunity from a high position.

In the chaos of the disorganized defense, Australia's Goodwin capitalized with an impressive volley.

 

In addition, there were indeed other scoring opportunities for the opponent. 

 

Especially, situations where there was too much space between the wing-backs on both sides were frequently observed.

In my opinion, the impact of the fatigue from the previous game's extra time and the short rest period might have been inevitable factors.

Normally, players like Kim Tae-hwan or Seol Young-woo could have easily kept up with the required distances and speeds, but there were many instances where they seemed to lag behind.

Nevertheless, South Korea managed to withstand these scoring opportunities and held their ground. 

Once again, after the 90th minute, South Korea's football started to click.

And today's hero was Son Heung-min.

Honestly, leading up to this game, I personally found Son Heung-min's play a bit frustrating.

It seemed like his tempo was slower compared to his performances at Tottenham,

and his shots were either weak or off-target.

 

However, today was different.

 

Firstly, he didn't seem to be shouldering the burden alone on the wings, possibly because he had Hwang Hee-chan alongside him, which made him appear a bit lighter on his feet.

He frequently showed scenes of breaking the defensive line and providing cutbacks after receiving the ball.

Then, in the 95th minute, Son Heung-min grabbed the ball in front of the opponent's box and immediately started dribbling.

Despite being surrounded by four Australian defenders, he managed to penetrate through them. Subsequently, when Australia's Miller made a rash tackle resulting in a penalty kick, it seemed unnecessary from Miller's perspective.

He could have simply tracked back and defended without resorting to a tackle, but perhaps due to Son's impressive breakthrough through the four defenders, Miller's judgment seemed hurried or desperate.

 

Hwang Hee-chan stepped up as the kicker and boldly aimed for the top left corner of the goal, successfully scoring and providing a lifeline for South Korea's Asian Cup journey.

As the game went into extra time, the standout performer was Yang Hyun-jun. 

Just before the end of the second half of extra time, Kim Tae-hwan was substituted for Yang Hyun-jun, 

who usually plays as a winger.

Substituting a wing-back for a winger and deploying Park Yong-woo in a center-back role effectively transformed the formation into a variation of the 3-back system.

I consider this substitution and tactical adjustment as a very good choice.

Incorporating Yang Hyun-jun, who preserved his energy compared to the fatigued Kim Tae-hwan,

in a position similar to a wing-back closer to the winger role revitalized the right flank.

Yang Hyun-jun's dynamic runs down the flank provided a refreshing breakthrough, 

opening up previously congested areas.

Thanks to his breakthroughs, Lee Kang-in, who was positioned on the right wing, 

was able to move closer to the penalty box, enhancing his chances of getting closer to the goal.

 

And the grand finale was once again adorned by Son Heung-min.

South Korea won a free kick right in front of the left corner of the penalty box.

Son Heung-min delivered a stunning wonder goal from that free kick, 

ultimately leading to a successful comeback.

It was truly a picture-perfect free kick goal.

Honestly, considering the angle, I thought he would curl it around the far post, and it seemed like the opponent thought so too, as Matthew Ryan, the goalkeeper, positioned himself to guard the far post.
However, Son Heung-min applied topspin, 

delicately bypassing the defensive wall and finding the near post to score the goal.

He truly is a world-class player.

 

Furthermore, immediately after the successful free kick goal, Australia once again resorted to reckless defending, leading to another player receiving a red card this time.

Thanks to this, we were able to finish the game in the final 15 minutes of extra time without any significant threats.

Reaching the semi-finals was definitely a great achievement.

However, one slightly disappointing aspect is that we expended too much energy in both the Round of 16 and Quarter-finals, both of which went into extra time, and it's unfortunate that Kim Min-jae, a key defender, won't be available for the semi-final due to accumulated yellow cards.

While it might be ambitious to hope for an easier path in the semi-finals, facing Jordan, who gave us a tough time in the group stage, will undoubtedly present challenges. Nonetheless, I hope we can at least display a performance as good as this match.