Women’s soccer team aspires to golden results in Asiad

“So it’s competition with Japan and North Korea. We are up to it.”

Korean women’s soccer Asian Games Team Manager Yoon Deok-yeo, 53, said the team would return with better results than four years ago in Guangzhou. The team is hoping for its first-ever gold medal at the Asian Games. Korea, which won the bronze in Guangzhou, is aiming for gold in this competition.

The best-known player in Korean women’s soccer Park Eun-seon, 28, and playing for WFC Rossiyanka. She has not joined due to issues with her team. Meanwhile, 23-year-old Ji So-yun, who is playing in the English team Chelsea Ladies, plans to join from the quarter-finals, but there is still hope. Yoon said that the older athletes who are in their mid-20s are still going strong, while the younger players who are just 20 years old will join them, and they stand a fighting chance for good results. According to Yoon, this Korean women’s soccer team for this year`s Asian Games has an effective combination of veterans and up-and-comers.

In addition to the 26-year-old trio of Jeon Ga-eul, Yoo Young-a (both Hyundai Steel) and Kwon Hah-nul (Busan Sangmu), there is an infusion of the leaders, Lee So-dam and Choi Yu-ri (both Ulsan College) of the quarterfinals finish in the U-20 FIFA World Cup, which ended recently. At the quarterfinal match, Jeon and Yoo scored 18 goals each and Kwon scored 11 goals, leading the Korean team. Lee and Choi have played in seven matches and four matches respectively for the Korean team. Although they have not scored goals yet, they have high potential for development. In particular, Lee So-dam took care of offense, scoring penalty kicks in matches with England (August 7) and Mexico (August 14) in the U-20 World Cup tournament.

The Korean team is currently in Group A, where the other teams of Thailand, India and Myanmar are relatively weak. Korea appears likely to easily gain entrance to the quarterfinals, which are awarded up to the second-ranked in each Group. Team training at the National Football Center (NFC) in Paju, Gyeonggi Province began from Thursday. Team Manger Yoon said as the competition will be held in Korea, training would be stringent under hopes of making the Korean public happy.