Can Kim Min-jae, who stands tall as the best defender in Europe in his team Napoli, show the same appearance?
‘Iron Pillar’ Min-jae Kim tries to keep a clean sheet in the return match against Uruguay.
The Korean national soccer team, led by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, will play the second match of the March A-match against Uruguay at the Seoul World Cup Stadium at 8:00 pm on the 28th.
Korea will have a return match in four months with Uruguay, which they met in the first round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup group stage held in November last year.
In the World Cup match, Korea faced Uruguay, a team that advanced to the quarterfinals of the previous tournament, and played an unexpectedly dominant game, playing an equal match and drawing 0-0.
Although they failed to score, the so-called ‘5KIM (Five Kim)’ defensive line centered on Kim Min-jae (goalkeeper Kim Seung-kyu, left-back Kim Jin-soo, center backs Kim Young-kwon and Kim Min-jae, right-back Kim Moon-hwan) was Darwin Nunez (Liverpool), Luis Suarez (Liverpool). Gremio) and Facundo Pellistri (Manchester United), and Uruguay’s strikers, who play in prestigious teams in Europe and South America, were blocked.
Kim Min-jae, in particular, transferred to Naples in the 2022/23 season, entered the big league called Serie A, and immediately showed off his skills. Since he went to the World Cup with the title of the best defender in the league, he raised a lot of expectations and succeeded in scoring no goals in the match against Uruguay. 온라인바카라
However, from Kim Min-jae’s point of view, it is undeniable that he failed to leave a deep impression in recent A-matches, except for the match against Uruguay. There was an aftermath of a calf injury during the speed competition against Núñez in the second half of the match against Uruguay, but it was because he conceded more than two goals in the A-match he participated in afterwards.
He struggled against Ghana, but after conceding 3 runs and tasting Korea’s defeat by Pellescore (2-3), he sat on the bench in the final game against Portugal and applauded Korea’s 2-1 victory and progress to the round of 16.
However, in the round of 16 against Brazil, where they played again, they could not avoid the responsibility of the crushing defeat by watching 4 runs in the first half. And on the 24th, in his first game against Colombia, which was his first game against Klinsmann Ho, he was helpless by the opponent’s breakthrough in the second half and provided an excuse for his first goal.
Even before the World Cup, in the match against Costa Rica in September, the back 4 line led by him allowed 2 runs (2-2 draw), and it is a completely different picture from the ‘life of zero conceding’ in Naples.
Kim Min-jae, who returned to his team after the World Cup, has grown even more and has been playing his best on the stage of the UEFA Champions League, and rumors of a transfer to a big European club are constantly being raised.
The team’s Serie A championship is a certainty, and entering the league’s best eleven is not a dream.
Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti also praised Kim Min-jae as “the best defender in the world.”
However, when it comes to the national team, the unfortunate scene of conceding continues to appear. It cannot be said that he is responsible for all the conceded points, but considering that the national team’s defense team relies a lot on his leadership and skills, it is Kim Min-jae’s task to transform from Naples ‘iron pillar’ to Klins Manho ‘iron pillar’.
Kim Min-jae is also hoping for a scoreless victory through this game against Uruguay. At a pre-press conference against Uruguay on the 27th, he pledged a good defense, saying, “I played a leading role against Colombia, but then I concentrated in the second half and conceded a goal in the early hours.
He said, “The game against Uruguay will be difficult, but we have to go without conceding. If we don’t concede, there are players who have the ability to put it in the attack at any time. I think we can win if we do that without conceding first.”