Asian Cup, Traditional Individual Skills + Mancini’s Organizational Skills… Our Opponent in the Round of 16 is Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, Klinsmann's opponent for the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup Round of 16, is a difficult team to deal with as its players have good individual skills and are organizationally armed with 'practical soccer'.
Saudi Arabia is a 'traditional powerhouse' in the Middle East that reigned as Asia's strongest power in the 1990s.
The memories of old fans are strong as Saudi Arabia advanced to the round of 16 at the 1994 US World Cup by defeating Morocco and Belgium, led by talented strikers and midfielders such as Sami Al-Jaber, the 'Desert Fox', and Saeed Al-Owairan, the 'Maradona of the Desert'.
It will remain like that. 카지노사이트원
Saudi football, which had been stagnant since the mid-2000s but was rebounding with increased investment ahead of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, once again attracted attention by causing a stir with a 2-1 comeback victory over Argentina, the eventual winner of the tournament, in the first match of the group stage.
Left winger Salim Al-Dawsari (Al-Hilal), the protagonist of the comeback goal at the time, is also active as a key resource for Saudi Arabia in this tournament.
Soccer commentator Han Jun-hee said, “Al-Dausari feels a bit underperforming in this tournament, but he is a class player who can make a big splash at any time.”
Through the Qatar World Cup, Saudi Arabia received favorable reviews for having upgraded its organizational skills to a new level by breaking away from the existing style that tended to rely heavily on the individual skills of its players.
Since coach Roberto Mancini, who led Manchester City and the Italian national team in the English Premier League (EPL), took charge in August of last year, the team has been reborn as a stronger team.
According to European media, Coach Mancini's annual salary is approximately 43 billion won.
Coach Mancini is from Italy, the 'homeland of defensive soccer', and is a commanding officer who excels at forming a solid defensive organization.
Manchester City's first EPL championship trophy and Italy's Euro 2020 (2020 European Football Championship) championship trophy were created by coach Mancini's fingertips.
After Coach Mancini took office, Saudi Arabia got off to an uneasy start with 4 consecutive games without a win (1 draw and 3 losses), including a friendly match defeat (0-1) against Korea in September last year, but the team clearly bounced back with 4 consecutive A-match wins.
I did so and entered this competition.
However, the fact that the decision-making power of the front line attackers in this competition is rarely revived is considered a weakness.
Due to the 'side effect' of the domestic league's policy of recruiting European superstars, the fact that current national team players have not been able to play much for their teams has been cited as a factor of concern.
The Saudi Pro League recruited top European players such as Cristiano Ronaldo (Al-Nasr), increasing the foreign player retention limit to eight and allowing seven of them to be included in the roster.
Commentator Park Moon-seong said, "The issue was raised that many of the Saudi national team players were losing their starting positions and their sense of play was deteriorating.
in fact, in the second half of the first game of this tournament, the players' stamina and concentration were seen decreasing."
However, after playing in real games, my sense of the game seems to be coming back.”
Since it is a one-shot match and Coach Mancini's tendency to emphasize 'balance', there is a high possibility that a fierce battle will unfold in the midfield.
Commissioner Han Jun-hee pointed out, "You must not be pushed back in the midfield battle.
When the opposing wingbacks come up, you need to maintain a gap and concentrate so that the half space (the space between the two sides and the center) is not attacked."
Commissioner Park Moon-seong said, "If Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), a side resource, can return to the starting lineup, Son Heung-min (Tottenham) will be placed at the top and Lee Jae-seong (Mainz) will be placed as a sagging striker, with the existing Hwang In-beom (Zvezda) and Park Yong-woo (Al Ain) “It is also worth considering ways to increase the number of midfielders, such as having them dominate the midfield,” he said.