First match (9/14, Daegu): Korea 1 - 2 Brazil (1-1 HT) 19' Matos Marcelo 35' Jung Jo-guk 48' Marquinhos
Matos Marcelo... The scorer of the first goal, Matos Marcelo, plays for Oita Trinita... does any J-fan know him?
maybe the Korean team should do that too since so many players have the same last name. but then again, it would seem like a neighborhood kids' game where they call each other by their first names. so Seol Ki-hyeon would have "Ki Hyunie" on his back or Hong Myung-bo would have "Myung Bonim" like Ronaldinho or some crap.
Second match (9/17, Daejon) 1-1 HT Korea dominated comlpetely in the first 30 minutes... Choi sung-guk caused all kinds of trouble for the Brazilian defense, Kim Dong-hyun & Jung Jo-guk each came very close. Then a terrible give-away by central defender Yeo Hyo-jin led to an undeserved Brazilian goal... Bruno Moraes scored with only the keeper to beat in the 31st minute. But Korea continued to press forward and finally got an equaliser through Kim Dong-hyun 8 minutes later... From just outside the arc, Kim Soo-hyung received Lee Jong-min's cross from the right and volleyed it to Kim Dong-hyun in the area... Kim made two touches with a defender trailing him, then released a powerful left-footer from an acute angle.
Korea 3 - 1 Brazil!!! (62') Lee Jong-min whipped in a sharp cross into the box and the keeper could only push it out... Jung Jo-guk pounced on the rebound and again the keeper blocked it but this time the ball fell right in front of Choi Sung-guk and he put the ball home from 4 yards.
Korea 3 - 3 Brazil (65')... Yes, the score's right... Korea let 2 goals in 2 minutes, while I was typing the message above...
Korea 3 - 4 Brazil (FT) Brazil wins for the sixth time in as many meetings between the two nations' youths... But today's match had more positives than negatives for Korea. The forward line of Choi-Kim-Jung-Lee looks very promising... and the 4-back system seems to be functioning quite well despite a few glitches. If they could improve the fitness level in one month, Korea could fare well in the Asian Youth Championship in October.
what was up with the empty stadium and the non-supportive, anti-red crowd at Daejeon. I knew for a long time that Daejeon hated football for some reason but it breaks my heart to see such a beautiful stadium never being filled up.
korean ppl seem to have this anti-red thing. They just don;t like to wear red. I guess its something from 50's and the democracy movement from the 80's but whatever reason I was kinda expecting every korea game to be filled with red shirts but it wasnt the case in Daejeon.
Second match FT Korea Rep 3 : 4 Brazil We have dominated the match but conceded too many goals in ridiculous fashion. We have very strong attack but serious problem with four back line defence.
But one thing I can say confidently is that our attacking midfielders and forwards are World Class for U19 level. It is one of the best in the World. We'll see. Hopefully, we will fix our defence in time.
It was very interesting to see the combination of Choi Sung-Guk at left wing mid, Lee jong-min at right wing mid, and Jung Jo-guk and Kim Dong-Hyun as two top strikers. Very impressive attacking power indeed. When we did concede two goals in about 5mins when we were leading 3-1(!!!!), we did it in a spectacularly ridiculous fashion.
The good sign was we were not inferior in terms of technique to any of Brazilian U19 players. In fact, in some aspects we were superior in terms of ball control.
Good show... poor finish. Does the KFA have anything resembling an organized structure for developing our youths? Such a waste of talent.