Chapter 57 Park Joo-young

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  This way, the national youth team's defense inevitably had a big hidden danger, but since the opponent in the final, South Korea, had been defeated many times by the predecessor of the national youth team (not the batch from the Finland World Youth Championship, but the batch with Feng Xiaoting), and was even swept 3-0 by Iraq in the group stage of this Asian Youth Championship, their strength wasn't very strong, so everyone still had confidence.

  Objectively speaking, this South Korean U23 team is indeed not strong, and among the whole team, only Park Joo-young, who Koreans call "Asian Baggio", will become a mainstay of the Korean national team in the future. However, it was this Park Joo-young who almost single-handedly defeated China's strongest U23 team after professionalization...

  But the current national youth team is no longer the one in history, although the average age is younger, but the two important youth championships have greatly enhanced their confidence, and the various tests experienced in the game have made them at least capable of being calm in the face of chaos in the youth competition. More importantly, there is also a shooter in this national youth team who has far surpassed the level of Asian youth teams...

  After the opening, both sides first unfolded an intense competition in midfield. The South Korean team, with a slightly older average age, fully utilized its advantages in confrontation and running ability to gain the upper hand. However, China's fierce counterattack posed a more substantial threat.

  In the 16th minute, Gao Jun made a surprising long shot from the front court after gaining possession of the ball, and the ball flew out after rubbing against the goal post, causing the Korean goalkeeper to sweat as he was unable to make a save in time. Now, Gao Jun has grown to 1.71 meters tall and weighs 68 kilograms, which greatly increased his confidence in his strength. At least in the youth team's matches, Gao Jun began to try more long shots and personal breakthroughs that he had only occasionally attempted before, undoubtedly making it even harder for the Korean team to defend.

  In the 25th minute, Yu Hai broke through on the wing and attracted two Korean defenders before passing the ball to Gao Lin in the middle. Gao Lin shot the ball into the far corner of the goal, which the Korean goalkeeper could not save, and China took a 1-0 lead!

  However, the stubborn Korean team did not give up. In the 38th minute, Park Joo-young broke into the left side of the penalty area and shook off four Chinese defenders with a low shot from a distance, scoring a goal that would later be called "Messi-style", tying the score to 1:1!

  Regarding the poor performance of the national youth team's defender, head coach Liu Chunming was very dissatisfied. However, Gao Jun understood that this ball was really unavoidable. Park Joo-young, who had encountered major setbacks in his professional career but still grew into a top Asian player worth tens of millions of euros, is now still young and inexperienced. Once he breaks out, the relatively weak defense line of this national youth team will find it difficult to stop him, especially with Feng Xiaoting not being present, making it even harder to prevent Park Joo-young's individual performance.

  Before the end of the first half, the Korean team successfully intercepted the ball on the right front court and directly passed it to the penalty area. The ball reached Park Joo-young, who shot a goal with one touch, and the Korean team successfully reversed the score, while the Chinese youth players were also dealt a significant blow.

  "What's wrong with you? It's just a temporary lag of one ball. Just score a few more to overtake, this situation is not the first time we encountered, and at that time the opponent was much stronger than this Korean team." High Jun's confident words quickly restored the morale of the national youth team, and as soon as the second half began, he scored a goal in almost the same way as Park Joo-young's first goal, tying the score 2-2!

  After scoring two goals in the first half, Park Joo-young thought "That Ko Gun is said to be very good, but it doesn't seem like much." However, Ko Gun's brilliant performance this time made him turn pale with a look of anger, "Damn! Are you trying to tell me that I can do it, and you can do it too?"

  Then the Korean team launched a wave of attacks, and China's weak defense line was like a precarious tower in a storm, but the national youth team still seized every opportunity to launch a quick and sharp counterattack. In the 58th minute, China got a corner kick, but Hao Jianmin's high ball was too close to the opponent's goalkeeper. Just as he regretted wasting a corner kick opportunity, the Korean goalkeeper suddenly dropped the ball. High Jun, who reacted quickly, would not refuse the gift given by the opponent. Without adjusting, he directly kicked the ball into the net, and the score on the field became 3:2. China successfully achieved a reversal...

  But the Chinese team didn't have time to celebrate for a few minutes, and the central defender who replaced Feng Xiaoting was shown a second yellow card for dissent towards the referee's penalty, resulting in a red card and being sent off. This left China with only 10 players on the field, while South Korea took advantage of the situation to strengthen their offense. However, this also forced China to thoroughly retreat their defense line and focus on counterattacking, which unexpectedly posed an even greater threat to South Korea...

  In the 75th minute, Hao Haidong made a cross from the right side of the field and Yu Hai scored with a header, expanding the lead to 4-2. Now Yu Hai's height has reached 1.85 meters, and under reasonable diet and scientific training, his body is getting stronger and stronger. Even in Asia, where South Korea is very good at heading, it would be quite difficult to deal with him. Of course, if it were the much stronger Korean national team, it might be a different story.

  After the score was widened again, the Korean team became more and more anxious, and although the offense was fierce, it only blossomed without results. Before the game was about to end, Gao Jun took advantage of a quick counterattack opportunity, received a pass from left back Rong Huang, and volleyed into the net, fixing the final score at 5-2.

  The Korean team, who were full of confidence before the match, suffered a crushing defeat. The Chinese team still had a core player who didn't play, and even Park Joo-young couldn't help but admit that Gao Jun was impressive. After the match, he actively sought out Gao to exchange jerseys. However, Park attributed the difference between the two teams to his own lack of experience in international competitions, and not willing to give up, he trained even harder after returning home, which moved the club's head coach and allowed him to enter the starting lineup earlier than expected, a butterfly effect that Gao Jun had not anticipated.

  In addition, winning the Asian Youth Championship is a good thing, but this led to the national youth team being divided into the "group of death" in next year's World Youth Championship in the Netherlands, and the difficulty of qualifying has increased greatly compared to history. This was also unexpected by Gao Lin. Of course, even if he thought of this matter, with his character, he would not give up in this game...