Kim Ji-soo is smiling broadly.
South Korea's U-23 national team won 1-0 in the first round of the 2024 Western Asian Football Federation (WAFF) U-23 Championship against Thailand at Prince Abdullah bin Zalawi Stadium in Almubaraj, Saudi Arabia, on the 21st.
The WAFF U-23 Championship will be held in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, from July 18 to 26, with eight countries including Korea, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Australia, Thailand and Egypt participating. Each team will have three rounds of matches. The tournament will be held in the quarterfinals, where the winner and the loser will compete to determine the ranking from first to eighth place. The team will have a match against Saudi Arabia on Sunday. The team will have a final ranking match on Sunday.
The U-23 national team entered this year's championship without a head coach. Hwang served as interim coach of the A national team during the duration of the championship. Head coach Myung Jae-yong is leading the championship. "I know what people around me are concerned about and worried about. I don't want to deny it. There are areas that I need to develop in the past and areas that I need to check in one or two positions," Hwang said. "I shared with my coaches in advance. We have decided on the lineup and concept for the second and third games including the first game. I will check the game and give feedback through the video."
Yang Hyun-joon, Kim Ji-soo, Bae Joon-ho and Kim Min-woo were also included in the list of players from overseas leagues. All of them are starters with plans for the next Olympics. All of them have already been negotiated in advance to run for the U-23 Asian Cup, which will also serve as qualifiers for the Paris Olympics scheduled next month.
Cho Hyun-taek of the U-23 national team is playing.
From then on, Hwang will lead the team again. He will convene on April 2 and depart for Dubai, UAE on April 5 for training. He will hold his final training session with the Middle Eastern team on April 9, before heading to Doha, Qatar, which will be a battleground on April 10. The U-23 Asian Cup will also serve as the final preliminary match for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The top three teams will advance to the Olympics finals, and the fourth place will have a playoff game against the fourth place finisher in Africa. 토토