FC Seoul acting head coach Kim Jin-kyu was unhappy with his first Super Match victory as head coach, saying “we lost our tail in the second half.”
Seoul held on to Ilyuchenko’s goal a minute into the match to beat Suwon Samsung 1-0 in the 29th round of the Hana OneQ K League 2023 at Suwon World Cup Stadium on Sunday.
It was the first win in nearly two months for Seoul, which had struggled with four draws and two losses, since a 7-2 victory over Suwon FC on July 12. It was Kim’s first win in two games as head coach.
However, Kim was not all smiles at the press conference.
“I expected Suwon to be aggressive in the second half, so I told them to raise the line, but it didn’t work out. I don’t feel good,” he said.
There was an incident midway through the first half when a Seoul fan fainted in the heat.
Kim rallied the team in the locker room at halftime, saying, “Maybe the fan got sick because he was trying to support us, so let’s do our best until the end.
The second half, however, was dominated by Suwon. If it wasn’t for goalkeeper Choi Chul-won’s saves, they might have lost the game.
“If we don’t quickly correct our habit of going backwards as the game goes on, Seoul will no longer be a good team,” Kim emphasized.
As for Ilyuchenko, who scored for the second game in a row, Kim was pleased with his performance, saying, “I asked him to stay in the box, not to go sideways, and to be focused when the ball comes in, and it seems to be working well.”
Ilyuchenko has been in a bit of a slump in the first half of the season, bouncing between the bench and the starting lineup, but his form has improved recently.
The Seoul fans love Kim’s cool way with words.
“I’m not the type of person who thinks things through. I just say what comes out of my mouth. Sometimes it doesn’t work out,” he laughed.
“I don’t think we were bad in the second half,” said Suwon head coach Kim Byung-soo. In the end, soccer is a game where you have to score to win. That one goal decided the winner and the loser. Just because we lost, I don’t want to say that the other team played better.” 토토사이트