The battle for the top spot in the Klinsmann Cup is far from over. Oh Hyun-gyu (Celtic) and Cho Kyu-sung (Jeonbuk) both missed scoring chances in Peru.
Jürgen Klinsmann’s South Korean national soccer team lost 0-1 to Peru in an A-match trial at the Busan Asiad Stadium on Saturday.
With Son Heung-min (Tottenham) sidelined due to the after-effects of sports hernia surgery, neither Oh Hyun-gyu, who started, nor Cho Kyu-sung, who came on as a substitute, could find the back of the net.
It was the first goalless match for Klinsmann since its inception in March.
Oh Hyun-gyu had two scoring chances on the day. In the 27th minute, he shot wide, and in the 16th minute of the second half, he was virtually one-on-one with the keeper, but his shot was poorly timed and blocked.
It was especially disappointing as he was given his first start ahead of Cho Kyu-sung and Hwang Eui-jo (Seoul) after coming on as a substitute in the first two A matches in March.
Oh, who has shown purity of decision in his short time at Celtic, struggled against the Peruvian defense and missed several perfect chances.
After the game, Oh said, “It was my first start and there were a lot of things I didn’t do well. I felt a lot of things. I felt that there were a lot of things that I needed to improve and do in the future. It was a game where I could get stronger,” he said.
“As a striker representing Korea, you have to score goals. I’m ashamed of myself for not capitalizing on my chances,” he said.
Despite his failure to score, he received encouragement from coach Klinsmann: “I wanted to give him (the coach) his first win, but it’s hard mentally. I don’t know if I will get a chance against El Salvador, but if I do, I will try to score,” he said encouragingly.
Cho Kyu-sung, who came on for Oh Hyun-gyu in the 18th minute of the second half, was no different. In the 32nd minute, he had a perfect chance to head in a cross from Lee Kang-in (Mallorca), but it went over the bar.
Even as a joker on the day, Cho was ahead of Oh in the delivery department, but he was unable to match the header he shared with Lee against Ghana in the group stage of the Qatar 2022 World Cup last year.
“I’m sorry that we didn’t win despite having a lot of fans here,” Cho said. “It was a perfect chance that (Lee) created for us, but I wasn’t able to concentrate until the end. I think I was complacent,” he said.
He added, “I was in good shape and thought I would have one chance, but I missed it. We have one game left, so we’ll shake it off quickly,” he said.
With all the strikers failing to score against Peru, it will be interesting to see who starts against El Salvador at the Daejeon World Cup Stadium on Tuesday.먹튀검증
Son Heung-min (Tottenham), who watched from the bench in Peru as he recovered from sports hernia surgery, will be a key question mark, while Hwang Eui-jo, who came on as a late substitute in Peru, could get a chance to start.
Alternatively, a bold tactic of using two strikers at the same time cannot be ruled out.