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Kim Shin-wook to use his height to launch strikes against Iran

Kim Shin-wook to use his height to launch strikes against Iran

Posted October. 11, 2016 07:46,   

Updated October. 11, 2016 08:13

한국어
Kim Shin-wook (196 centimeters) will take the lead in the fight against Iran. After his return to the Korean national team in more than a year, Kim has emerged as an effective option for the team’s offence.

At the third match of the Asian qualifiers against Qatar for the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia on Thursday, Kim was deployed as substitute player at the opening in the second half, outmaneuvered the opponent team’s defenders at 10th minute, secured a flying ball, and helped Ji Dong-won (Augsburg) to score the tying goal. Kim also managed to take the ball at the frontier, gave sharp passes to teammates penetrating towards the goal, to boost momentum for his team’s offense. “I told my teammates to utilize me to find opportunities, which eventually led the team's success,” he said.

Being criticized as a "striker who is only good at headers," he has finally become a multi-functional striker after learning teamwork play with teammates at Jeonbuk FC in this year’s K-League soccer. “Kim Shin-wook is now good at not only headers but also shots,” said Jeonbuk coach Choi Kang-hee. “He had a slump after basic military drills and injuries early this year, but he made a lot of efforts to improve team play with second-line strikers while trying to overcome those challenges.”

According to a Jeonbuk FC source, Kim studied how to kick and pass the ball to teammates at exact timing even while he could not afford to participate in matches in early days of this season. He never ceased exercises after the end of his team’s exercises. He worked on two-to-one passes, shooting and controlling the height of his passes jointly with second-line strikers including Kim Bo-kyung.

“Like the national team, whose second-line offence is menacing, Jeonbuk FC has a number of qualified second-line strikers including Leonardo Pereira,” Coach Choi said. “Kim Shin-wook studied how to collaborate with second-line strikers and this led to his improved performance in the Korean team.”

Team Korea will have the fourth match of the Asian qualifiers against Iran at Azadi Stadium in Tehran at 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday (Korea time). In three previous matches, Iran has not given any score to opponent teams by banking on its robust pressure and close defense. As such, it would be effective for Team Korea to stage tactic in which the team induces Iranian defenders to focus on marking Kim Shin-wook, who is strong in competition to secure a flying ball and rarely loses it, and let second-line strikers to penetrate empty spots to seek a goal.

Team Korea has increased the portion of side offensives, which is elevating the utility of Kim. In the match against Qatar, the Korean team had 23 offensives on the sides, with side defender Hong Cheol (Suwon) proactively joining offence, which far outnumbered attacks at the center (five times). If Korea can use crosses following penetrations on the sides in the match against Iran, Kim may also be able to score a heading goal.

Korea is trailing Iran with nine wins, seven draws and 12 losses while not being able to win away matches, with two draws and four losses. In the showdowns against Iran in the final qualifying round for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Korea lost Iran 0-1 in both home and away matches. At the time, Iranian coach Carlos Queiroz displayed "derogative gesture" towards the Korean team’s bench after beating Korea, which sparked controversy. “I hope that Coach Uli Stielike takes vengeance," said Choi Kang-hee, then national team coach. "It would be even great if Kim Shin-wook can score a goal to beat Iran.”



정윤철기자 trigger@donga.com