On the evening of October 17, Beijing time, the South Korean men's football team defeated Vietnam 6-0 in a friendly match. Just over a week ago, the national football team beat Vietnam 2-0 in Dalian. Compared to the South Korean team, which won easily and neatly, the national football team did not win easily against Vietnam. These two matches very intuitively show the gap between the national football team and the South Korean team.
This is not good news for the national football team. After all, a month later, the national football team will face South Korea in the second match of the World Qualifiers. At present, it seems that the South Korean team is ahead of the national football team in both the offensive and defensive ends. It's not easy to get points on this team.
Although Vietnam is far from always a strong team for the South Korean team, they are still elite. After all, this is South Korea's last friendly match before the World Qualifiers. It can be said that the Korean team in this game is very close to the feeling of actual combat.
At present, the two aces in the South Korean squad are undoubtedly Son Heung-min, known as the "first brother of Asia", and Bayern central defender Kim Min-ya, who has improved rapidly in the past two years. The fact that both players started at the same time shows how seriously the Korean team takes this match.
During the match, the two players lived up to expectations. Kim sent a header in the opening 6th minute of the game and was named Player of the Game after the match. Although Son Heung-min missed consecutive opportunities in the first half, he regained his form in time in the second half, contributing 1 shot and 2 passes while also creating a red card for the opposing player.
It is worth mentioning that it is very likely that Sun Xingmin did not show his true strength. Previously injured, he missed the friendly match on the 13th. At the same time, due to injuries, Son Xingmin's recent training volume is also very limited. There is still a month left before the World Qualifiers, which is enough for Son Heung-min to further recover. At that time, he will be full of firepower, which will bring great pressure to the national football defense line.
Just on October 10, the national football team also played a warm-up match with Vietnam. With less than 40% possession, Wu Lei and Wang Qiuming made a contribution to the national team to a 2-0 victory over Vietnam. However, this match did not fundamentally dispel the doubts of the outside world about the national football team. After all, in addition to the lead in the score, the national football team lagged behind the Vietnamese team, which is dominated by young players, in terms of the game scene, the technical and tactical cooperation it has shown, and the ability of the players.
South Korea, on the other hand, although slightly behind Vietnam in possession, created more offensive opportunities and played a more fluid combination, scoring six goals by six players each, winning crisply and neatly.
These two matches confirmed two points: first, the gap between the national football team and the South Korean team is far more than 4 goals; Second, the South Korean team has been in good shape recently, and as Son Heung-min further recovers, there will be some improvement in attack. Judging from the difference in strength between the two sides, it is unrealistic for the national football team to get points from the South Korean team in a two-legged match.
In this way, under the premise of ensuring that Singapore can "double kill", the decision to advance the national football team to the round of 18 is likely to be a two-legged direct dialogue with the Thai team. With the current state, even if the Thai team is not as ranked as the national football team in the world, the national football team is not fully sure of winning. In the World Preliminary Round, the room for mistakes left for the national football team has become smaller and smaller.
On October 16, the national football team had just finished its match against Uzbekistan. This team's pressing style is similar to that of South Korea, and for the national football team, this game is a simulation of the "China-Korea battle". But in the face of the "low-end version" of the South Korean team, the national football team still lost 1:2.
Fortunately, through this victory, the national football midfielder could not hold the ball, and did not know how to deal with high-intensity pressing and other problems were also exposed. This also gave national football coach Jankovic the direction of adjusting the lineup and technical tactics.
For the national football team, facing the South Korean team "less loss is winning" is a more realistic goal. The team will need to focus more on the match against Thailand or even Singapore to try to qualify second in the group.