Kim Jong-hoon (Jeonbuk Hyundai) is expected to play.
The Korean men’s football team, led by Hwang Sun-hong, will face Japan in the final of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games Men’s Football at the Huanglong Sports Center in Hangzhou, China, on Sunday at 9 p.m. (KST). It will be the second consecutive time the team will meet Japan in the final.
This is the final match for Hwang Sun-hong as he looks to win his third consecutive Asian Games title. Huang and his players have come this far with one goal in mind: to win the title. They had a bumpy ride in the quarterfinals against Uzbekistan, but they made it to the final. All that’s left is the final Korea-Japan match 스포츠토토.
However, there is one match that will be of interest regardless of the outcome. There’s one thing that will be interesting to see: whether or not Hwang Sun-Hong’s goalkeeper, Kim Jung-Hoon, will play. Hwangsun played six games from the group stage to the quarterfinals. Of the 22 players on the roster, only one didn’t play a single game, or even a minute. That would be goalkeeper Kim Jung-hoon.
Hwang continued to rotate heavily from the group stage. The second-stringers were used without a starter. There were a lot of substitutions. In the defense, Lee Han-beom and Park Jin-seop were the de facto starters, but Lee Jae-ik and Kim Tae-hyun were also given chances as starters and substitutes. Song Min-kyu, who missed the first two games due to injury, and Lee Kang-in, who joined the team late, have also been playing regularly in the group stage.
However, the goalkeeping position is a different story. Goalkeepers are not easy to replace. Hwangseon Hongho’s starting goalkeeper is Lee Kwang-yeon. He started five games, and in the third match of the group stage, which clinched a spot in the round of 16, Hwang used goalkeeper Min Sung-joon. Even after the tournament started, Hwang’s choice was still Lee Kwang-yeon.
There was a similar story with Hong Myung-bo’s team at the London 2012 Olympics. Defender Kim Ki-hee (Ulsan) didn’t get a chance to play until the third-place game, when he was replaced by Koo Ja-cheol (Jeju United) in the 44th minute. The national team went on to win the bronze medal, due to a guideline from the Korean Armed Forces that stated that “even one minute of playing time in a competition is required to receive military service benefits.” Kim eventually received his military service benefits.
However, according to a later revision of the law, the phrase “in the case of team events, only athletes who actually competed” was removed. Even if the law is still in place, Kim is still a “military veteran” who was discharged last December. This season, he is playing goalkeeper for Jeonbuk. It’s unclear if Kim will suddenly get a chance to play in the final. If Lee Kwang-yeon steps up and plays full-time, Kim Jong-hoon could become one of the least likely future medalists to win a medal without playing a single minute.