‘2014 World Cup protégé’ Park retires…Hong Myung-bo “I struggled, I worked hard”
Ulsan Hyundai head coach Hong Myung-bo cheered on his protégé’s second life.
Ulsan came from behind to win 3-1 against Suwon FC in the 17th round of the Hana OneQ K League 1 2023 at Suwon Sports Complex at 4:30 p.m. on June 6. With the three points, Ulsan further widened the gap between them and the second place.
Ulsan fell behind in the 16th minute of the first half when they conceded a goal to Yoon Beom-garam. However, Ulsan capitalized on their opponent’s mistake and came back to win the game. After Martin Adam equalized in the 25th minute of the second half to tie the game, Ulsan won the game in the 44th minute with a late goal from Ju In-gyu. Just before the end of the match, Bako also joined the scoring ranks to secure a comfortable victory.
After the game, head coach Hong Myung-bo said, “It was a tough game. Overall, the biggest issue was how to overcome the last loss. We conceded in the first half. I said to myself, ‘I hope the after-effects of the last loss will come out in the first half. In the second half, we said, ‘Let’s play our game.’ As it turned out, we scored, so our players are back on track. Thank you for doing your best,” he said, praising his players.
As for Ulsan’s first-half reaction, he said, “The overall reaction was late. The atmosphere on the field was a bit chaotic. It was a difficult time and we only conceded one goal. We had a chance to recover in the second half, which motivated the players.”
Ataru’s performance was crucial to the upset. He led Ulsan’s offense well from the second line. Head coach Hong Myung-bo said, “Ataru had some injuries and adaptation issues. When we were preparing for this game, I thought Ataru had a role to play. It would have been better if he scored. It was his best performance so far today.”
On the retirement of Park Joo-ho, who played with him at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, he said, “I told him it was over and congratulated him. I told him that there will be another time, so I hope he can prepare well and do what he wants to do. You’ve done a lot of hard work,” he said, cheering on his protégé.
Since Kim Young-kwon’s injury, Ulsan has continued to concede goals. However, head coach Hong Myung-bo said, “We can’t help it. We were a little unlucky. If you get a goal, you have to score it. We’ll make the best of it. Now that we’re going into the break, we’ll have time to share our problems and make preparations,” he said.
When asked about his strong protests to the referee during the match, he said, “I only spoke up because there were some ambiguous calls as the game went to the other side. Basically, I don’t like to protest the referee. I talked about the part where the flow became difficult.” 토토사이트