(Vision 21 News) Kim Young-kwon and Cho Kyu-seong, ahead of their first convocation training under the Klinsman system, expressed their anticipation for the new national team side by side.
The national soccer team led by coach Klinsman was convened at Paju NFC on the afternoon of the 20th. The national team, heading to Ulsan on the 22nd after three days of training in Paju, will play two consecutive A-matches against Colombia on the evening of the 24th at the Ulsan Munsu Soccer Stadium and against Uruguay at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the evening of the 28th.
Most of the players who participated in the last FIFA World Cup in Qatar were selected for this national team call list. Veteran defender Kim Young-kwon and Cho Kyu-seong, who became a star thanks to his performance at the World Cup in Qatar, joined the team and appeared at the press conference on the first day of the call.
Regarding the new national team under Klinsmann’s coaching system, Kim Young-kwon said, “The players are looking forward to it because he was very famous as a player and has a lot of experience coaching national teams in other countries. He said, “I am also looking forward to what kind of Korean soccer he will show me.”
Cho Kyu-seong, who is the same as coach Klinsman’s position as a player, said, ‘Anyway, now that coach Klinsman is a striker, I think there is something I can learn more from.’ The coach is also a target-type striker and has good goal-making skills, so he wants to learn a lot about that. I look forward to it,’ he said.
This call-up is the first official call-up for the men’s national team since the last World Cup in Qatar. Korea ended the year successfully by advancing to the round of 16 for the second time in history at the World Cup in Qatar following 2010. Regarding his impression of meeting his colleagues again in the first call-up training, Kim Young-kwon said, “I said it was nice to see you again. The future is more important than the past, so we talked about what to do and said let’s do it well.”
Head coach Klinsman, who watched the World Cup as a member of TSG, highly evaluated the potential of the Korean national team and picked ‘winning the 2023 AFC Asian Cup’ as his first goal after taking office. Kim Young-kwon said, “We showed potential at the last World Cup in Qatar and gained confidence that we could win the Asian Cup sufficiently.” I think it’s a goal that we can achieve, and I think we need to prepare well for the rest of the time.”
In response to manager Klinsman’s reply, ‘I prefer a 4-3 win over a 1-0 win,’ he said, “I like 4-0 better than 4-3. As a defender, not conceding a single goal seems to be fulfilling my role.”
Meanwhile, Cho Kyu-seong, who has stood tall as the national team’s main striker under the direction of coach Paulo Bento, has to compete for another starting position in the newly departed Klinsman. Oh Hyeon-gyu (Celtic), who scored his second goal in the league match on the 18th and is showing good sense, has also emerged as a strong competitor. Regarding this, Kyu-seong Cho said, “Competition for the starting lineup is naturally experienced by everyone while playing soccer. There is no big burden,” he said. “I always come with the attitude of learning whether I am on the team or on the national team. Even after coming, if there is something I can learn from, I want to hear a lot of advice and learn from it.”
Lastly, Cho Kyu-seong said, “My personal condition has improved a lot while playing league games.”
