CHAPTER 245 - Black Stars of Africa (1)

Afternoon on the day of the match.

Hunter's Rest Hotel in Rustenburg, South Africa.

While the Korean national team players were getting the best massages, manager Huh Sung-soo held coaches and coaches.

It was a leisurely time.

But the conversation still remained in football.

"How are the players?"

"The doctors say that we can recover 90% by next week."

"What is the injuries?"

"There are no major injuries found since."

"Good thing."

Like the Round of 16, Mexico's strength was more than expected as Mexico struggled to the end.

There were also a number of residual injuries revealed in the medical tests conducted after the game.

The good news is that you can recover well after 3-4 days of rest.

Only at the end of the second half was the situation of Ho-young who had collided with Marquez.

Injuries can be manifested, and even if you don't have any symptoms at all, you may hide and swell your body.

If you are the latter, make sure you have plenty of rest before your injury gets bigger.

Therefore, it was important to know the exact state of Ho-young.

"So what do the specialists say?"

"As it is. Injuries from the club around March this year seem to have recurred, and we have to rest for five days. "

"after······."

Ankle sprains are unlikely to recur early if caught early, but they will inevitably increase the risk of recurrence if they are exposed to great external shocks.

The situation was a good case.

"Marques' tackle was slightly missed and shocked."

"Oops. But you have to treat it first. The World Cup is also the World Cup, but it can be more dangerous later if you slow it down now. "

Even if it's okay now, sprained ankle spoils the athlete's overall balance and disrupts the body's sense of balance if not treated in a timely manner.

Even if they didn't play, they couldn't delay treatment.

"I'm glad. That's enough, if Marquez decided and priced at all, he would have been out for a month or two. If the speed of treatment is not slow, the next game can be played unconditionally. "

Fortunately, it was a misfortune.

However, Huh was worried about the quarterfinals rather than the quarterfinals.

'In the quarterfinals, it would be quite heavy.

The quarterfinals were to take place at the Johannesburg Stadium, which was over 1700 meters long.

In other words, even after winning the quarter-finals, it was the next problem.

'The quarterfinals will be twice as hard. No matter how good he is, Woo Ho-young cannot afford all those games alone. '

There was only three days to rest between the quarter-finals and the quarter-finals.

"You can't do it. Once Ho Young is out of the starting team, take her out of training, and do only light exercises to keep her body from becoming hard. "

"Okay."

That was the role of other players.

Colleagues had to hold on until Ho-young regained his stamina.

And.

"Please···."

Heo hoped and hoped again.

Hopefully America will come up.

And that night.

At the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, the U.S. and Ghana played a semi-final match.

Reid were taken by the United States, thanks to Landon Donovan's lead.

It was an upset that Ghana overturned the expectation.

But this did not last long.

Just before the end of the first half, Ghana's top striker Asamoah Gyan broke the equalizer with his fast legs.

Moreover, there was no end.

Ghana drove the momentum and scored an extra goal in the second half, which was a decisive blow, and Esian and Gian scored a wedge goal just before the end of the match.

All three goals came from counterattack.

[This led Korea to face Ghana in the quarter-finals. Although there were many opinions that Ghana will come up before the game, it's true that it's a bit burdensome. We wanted America.]

[It is true that Ghana is harder to deal with than America. It's a very powerful team in power and speed. So we need to make the defensive team fast.]

African black star Ghana.

They were much stronger than they thought.

Ghana's best player, Michael Essien, was in the midfield, controlling the tempo of the game, and the attackers had a solid finish with fast feet.

All of the defense were sharp and strong in the fight, so it was difficult to break through easily with excessive breakthroughs.

At least Hoyoung thought so.

'Essien is the biggest problem.'

Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien is a two-time winner at EPL this season.

A more accurate position is Box to Box.

Essien was regarded as the strongest of the current generation's central midfielders, continuing the lineage of Patrick Vieira, based on his strength and activity.

'In some ways, it's said to be a lot easier than dealing with Mascherano.'

Mascherano was a defensive midfielder specializing in defense, while Michael Essien was a box-to-box central midfielder.

The style was different.

To put it plainly, Mascherano was a midfield cleaner, while Michael Essien was a midfield gangster.

But he was originally destined to be unable to advance to the South Africa World Cup.

The future has changed.

As Ho Young knows, Essien should have missed the World Cup because of a nine-month injury.

However, due to some changes, Essien was injured and competed in the World Cup.

And he led the team to the quarterfinals.

It was never a funny opponent.

In terms of pure power, it was far ahead of Korea.

It was strong in the highlands and was rated as one above Mexico.

In other words, Nigeria's top compatibility.

'The answer is intelligent linkage play based on a high level of buildup.'

If Hoyoung is the command from the center was enough to see the effect of tactics.

The injury was just a problem.

It will be treated until the day before the match, but whether or not you can play full time was the key.

27th the next day.

At the Johannesburg Stadium, the Round of 16 match between Argentina and Uruguay was played.

There was no abnormality.

Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain went to the quarter-finals with one goal each, and in the following game, Germany survived by beating France 2-2.

The Netherlands, meanwhile, took a long-range shot from Sneijder, beating Slovakia 3-1.

Next came the big match between Brazil and Spain, attracting attention from around the world.

There was an analysis that Brazil would win in the highlands, but Spain, which was the first place in the championship, did not fall easily.

Tikitaka's breaking law was discovered, but simply knowing the solution did not stop it lightly.

And eventually.

The Brazilian national team, who lost to Iniesta and lost 1-1, had to pack up.

At the end of the quarterfinals, there was nothing more surprising than that.

Korea vs Ghana

Netherlands vs Spain

Argentina vs Germany

Paraguay vs Switzerland

It was Switzerland, who barely beat Portugal in a penalty shoot-out.

Cristiano Ronaldo had to finish the World Cup with five goals.

Woo Ho-young, who scored nine goals, began the full-fledged solo.

The quarter-finals came in front of us scaredly for the match.

The first match is Korea vs. Ghana.

It was scheduled to start at 8:30 pm at the Johannesburg Stadium.

It was an hour before the match that both teams started.

[7/2 (Fri) <Korea-Ghana> selection lineup, excluded from the selection list as predicted by Woo Woo-young ······ It is expected to be put on the bench as a replacement member in the emergency situation or in the second half]

The news of the two teams was mixed.

In addition, Lee Cheong-ryong was in a state of back injury.

[On the other hand, the Ghana national team is almost the best member. The injury left out one defender, but it doesn't change much. The formation came with 4-2-3-1.]

[3] Anthony Annan and Michael Essien were used as defensive midfielders in the third line, Kevin Prince Boateng in the attacking midfielders, and Asamoah Gian in the front. It is quite different from the counterattack tactics shown in the round of 16.]

[I do not know. I think we're trying to pull out the choking tactics we used against Australia in Group D.]

Beep-

Not surprisingly, at the beginning of the game, Ghana pushed the Republic of Korea hard by turning the formation into a bustling formation.

[Let's play regional defense while changing formation that was 4-3-3.]

[I will not give you a gap.]

In defense, he took the archetype to 4-1-4-1, effectively blocking the Republic of Korea's attack path by using the numerical advantage.

This was Ghana's manager Milovan Rajevac.

He originally tried to fight with speed counter-tactics, but changed his tactics after realizing that Woo-young was injured.

Since the opposing team changed from 'strong team' to 'weak team', the tactics also changed.

First, holding a strong defense and midfield, and attacking with various attack paths based on it was one of the best ways to shoot down the weak team.

So Laye Beach has been trying to choke the Republic of Korea and take over the game.

If you hold only the middle line and two wires, you can beat South Korea like a sandbag.

The game actually went that way.

[Michael Essien catching the ball! Oh, save the ball by pushing Ki Sung-ryong as it is.]

[Our players aren't strong enough in terms of strength and flexibility. It's better to shoot spaces more intelligently and create another space for opportunities.]

But the attack of the Republic of Korea did not come as expected.

By the end of the first 15 minutes, I was completely pushed out of my back fight and gave Ghana control.

Thanks to Michael Essien's complete control of the midfield, other players were free to attack.

There was no Woo Young, so everything was easy.

Huh Sung-soo, who chose 4-4-2, was keen to turn the ball in order to protect the ball's ownership, despite the idea of ​​moving forward to the second line.

[Ghana's offensive tracks are largely three. Counterattack, medium range shooting and infiltration play after linking. If you lose your possession of the ball right now, you should be careful about infiltration play after linking.]

Not surprisingly, it wasn't long before we faced the crisis with speedy linked play between Boa Teng and Gian.

Around 30 minutes.

Boaeng's forward pass was the starting point.

Percussion!

[Alas, it's dangerous. The back space opened instantly!]

[Lee Jong Soo! You have to run till the end!]

Lee Jong-soo was a good player, but not as much as Asamoah Gian.

In the end, he allowed shooting chances.

Cheongung!

[Oh, it goes in as it is. It is World Cup No. 4 goal of Asamoah Gyan.]

[Jung Sung-yong tried to fly, but it was one step late. That's too bad.]

Hur's face is distorted.

Originally, he was going to score in the first half and then reversed the game by replacing Woo Woo-young in the second half.

How long the other players held in the first half, that was the key, but unfortunately it did not stop Ghana's onslaught.

I'm glad to stop here, but I didn't think so.

At the same time, Park Ji-seok joined the House of Commons, but he was a little better, but he did not know that Ghana's momentum would be broken.

That was about 35 minutes in the first half.

"I can't."

I couldn't wait any longer.

Irritated Hur Sung-soo turned to the bench.

The place where his eyes stopped was Ho Young's face.

'You must change the mood once.'

Hoyoung's physical condition was not perfect, and her injury was fully recovered.

In fact, there was a doctor's opinion that it is okay to run full time.

I just pulled them out of the starters for physical condition.

Hur said, whispered.

"Ho-young."

"Yes."

"How are you feeling?"

"good."

"Then let's relax. Ghana's guys seem to have lost a lot of stamina. "

"Okay."

Scoop.

As soon as Ho-young stood on the bench, the mood of the stadium changed in a moment.