S. Korean football should not underestimate Honduras
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South Korean men’s football team’s forward Son Heung-min, center, takes a selfie with his teammates after defeating Mexico 1-0 in the Rio Olympics Group C football match in Brasilia, Wednesday. / Yonhap
By John Duerden
It’s not often that South Korea taking on Honduras is a huge game but Sunday’s showdown at the 2016 Rio Olympics is exactly that.
For South Korea at these games, any games, any Olympics, the last four is the promised land. Getting to the semifinals, you can smell the medals and feel the podium beneath your feet.
Gold is great, of course, but even a repeat of the bronze won in the 2012 Olympics is to be celebrated, not least because it will grant the players exemptions from military service that they all have to start before their 30th birthday.
As such, the quarterfinal can be a dangerous stage in the journey. Until now, the focus has been moving beyond the group stage. That was done with seven points from the three games against Fiji, Germany and the 1-0 final match win over Mexico.
Now half the work has been done, it is easy to start looking toward the semifinal and what could be a showdown with host Brazil. What a game that would be.
There is a danger, then, that after the win over 2012 gold medal winner Mexico and ahead of a potential meeting with Brazil, that Korea will not take Honduras as seriously as it should and regard the game as easy. That would be a huge mistake.
Honduras finished second behind Portugal and above Argentina and has some talented players. Alberth Elis is only 20 but has been attracting interest from clubs in Spain. Already a full international, the speedy star can play centrally or on the right side of attack.
Anthony Lozana is also a threat going forward and despite his tender years has played 20 times for the senior side while Johnny Palacios (whose brother Wilson once played for the same Tottenham Hotspur team as Son Heung-min) provides steel, experience and leadership at the back.
It remains to be seen how Honduras plays against Korea. The team is happy to be cast as the underdog and relished that role to sit back and counterattack against Portugal and Argentina in the group stage. Jorge Luis Pinto, the Colombian who coaches the Honduras team, enjoys a tactical battle and will make sure that his team is hard to beat. Against the more attack-minded Shin Tae-yong, it could be an interesting encounter.
“We can’t afford to let our guard down,” Shin said in the pre-match press conference. “On counterattacks, their players are really quick and dangerous.”
Scoring first is key for the coach. “We have to play with a lead so that we can keep our opponents from playing physical football.”
Shin had a little luck as Korea took all three points against Mexico. He will demand a better performance. The team struggled to put passes together, with Moon Chang-jin struggling in a central attacking role. It could be that Kwon Chang-hoon, who scored a spectacular winning goal, will move there.
The Korean defense looks better with Jang Hyun-soo in it and there are question marks about the two full-backs and their defensive and positional qualities. It remains to be seen if Honduras is able to take advantage or whether Shin can sort it out _ difficult to do when the games come every three days, especially with the journey to Belo Horizonte, 340 kilometers north of Rio. There is little chance for training, just recovery, rest then preparation.
For what it is worth, Korea is favored to win but anybody thinking it is going to be easy could well be in for a rude awakening. It would be disappointing indeed to fall at this stage, with the podium in sight.