‘Hurting’ South Korea want to win title for stricken goalkeeper

Jurgen Klinsmann’s South Korea want to win the Asian Cup for Kim Seung-gyu after the first-choice goalkeeper was ruled out of the rest of the tournament on Friday with injury. Kim suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a training session on Thursday in Doha.
The 33-year-old stopper, who plays in the Saudi Pro League, is a mainstay of the South Korean side, winning 79 caps since making his debut in 2013.
South Korea are trying to win the Asian Cup for the first time since 1960 and can seal their place in the last 16 with victory today against Jordan.
“I want to share how disappointed we are as a team and how sorry we are for him,” midfielder Lee Jae-sung said. “We are going to be playing for him and he is going to be with us in our hearts until the end of the tournament.”
Lee added that Kim’s injury “hurts (us), it hurts a lot...but it will be a motivation for us. Hopefully it can be a motivation to go far.”
Legendary German striker Klinsmann, who took over as South Korea coach a year ago, said his team could not afford to dwell on the loss of Kim. Klinsmann could now turn to 32-year-old Ulsan stopper Jo Hyeon-woo, who has 24 caps. “We are very sad about the injury, but it is part of the tournament,” Klinsmann said. “We need to move on. We keep him in our thoughts and we are fighting for him.”
With Kim in goal, South Korea defeated Bahrain 3-1 in their opening match in Qatar.
Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Hwang Hee-chan was not involved because of injury and Klinsmann suggested he will not be ready for the Jordan game. “Every day looks better and hopefully he will be back soon,” he said.
Meanwhile, the strength of the South Korean side is not lost on Jordan head coach Hussein Ammouta, who is hoping to see his side capitalise on their impeccable performance against Malaysia to combat the East Asian heavyweights’ stellar line-up.
“We played an outstanding match and the three points have really helped us,” said Ammouta. “But now we are up against one of the strongest teams in the competition and we need to play as one team and our reaction time has to be minimal.”
Tasked with the responsibility of containing formidable talents like Lee Kang-in and Son Heung-min, the Jordan head coach is placing his trust in a strategic zonal marking approach to thwart any potential goal-scoring threats.
“Man marking is difficult because it creates large gaps. We prefer to use zonal marking and will resort to man marking only in very specific situations,” he said.
“Our main focus is to remain compact, defend from the front and not leave many spaces behind for Korea Republic to use.”