sportstotomen   Album Posted Aug.18th, 2023, viewed 367 times

Soccer Korea snaps 5-game 0-3 losing streak against Japan U-18's Kang Minsung scores goal

U-18s win 1-0 in international tournament in Japan
First win in three and a half years since December 2019

The Korea U-18 soccer team snapped a five-match losing streak against Japan.

The Korea U-18 National Team defeated Japan U-18 1-0 on Sunday (July 17) at Kusanagi Sports Complex in Shizuoka, Japan, in the first leg of the SBS Cup 2023 International Youth Football Championship, thanks to a goal from Kang Min-sung (Suwon FC U-18).

After a 0-0 first half, South Korea took the lead five minutes into the second half. Jung Maho sent in a cross from the edge of the box, but the Japanese defense and goalkeeper got tangled up and couldn't deal with it properly. Kang Min-sung rushed forward and slotted it home with his left foot. The ball left Kang's foot and hit the right goalpost and went into the back of the net.

South Korea snapped a five-match losing streak against Japan at all levels of the men's national team, including the A team.

South Korea had lost all five of their previous matches against Japan at all levels of the national team by a combined score of 0-3 after Hwang In-Beom scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory at the East Asian Football Confederation (EAFF) E-1 Championship in Busan on December 18, 2019.

The A team lost 0-3 in a friendly match in Yokohama, Japan on March 25, 2021. The U-17s lost 0-3 at the U-16 International Dream Cup in Sendai, Japan, on June 8 last year. The U-23s lost 0-3 in the quarterfinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on June 12. The A team lost 0-3 at the EAFF E-1 Championship in Nagoya, Japan on July 27 last year. They lost again 0-3 in the final of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup in Thailand in July this year.

After three and a half years of victories against Korea, the U-18s will play the Kanto Region U-20 University Select Team on the 18th and the Shizuoka U-18 Select Team on the 20th.

The tournament will feature four teams: the Korea U-18s, the Japan U-18s, the Shizuoka U-18s, and the Kanto Region U-20s. The Paraguay U-18 National Team was originally scheduled to participate, but due to team circumstances, their entry was canceled, so the Kanto U-20 University Selection Team is taking their place. Each team will play three matches per pool, with each match lasting 80 minutes with 40 minutes in each half.

The squad is made up of players under the age of 18 who were born after 2005. The U-18s are eligible for the AFC U-20 Asian Cup and the FIFA U-20 World Cup in two years. There is no head coach and the coaching staff is made up of full-time coaches (Choi Jae-kwon, Lee Chang-hyun, Cha Sang-kwang, goalkeeping coach, 스포츠토토맨 and Lee Yi-sung, physical coach).