‘Wingback’ Ahn Hyun-bum showed his qualities as a ‘winger’ as well. However, Ahn confessed that he knew a day before the game whether he would play as a winger.
Jeonbuk Hyundai defeated Seoul 2-0 in the 33rd round of the Hana OneQ K League 1 2023 at Seoul World Cup Stadium at 3 p.m. on Aug. 8. The win leaves Jeonbuk in fourth place in the league with 14 wins, seven draws, and 12 losses (49 points). Jeonbuk moved up from seventh to fourth place before the match and finished the regular round in Final A. Seoul finished in fifth place after 32 rounds.
Seoul, on the other hand, was in fifth place after 32 rounds, but the loss dropped them to seventh place in the league with 12 wins, 11 draws and 10 losses (47 points), and they will finish the regular round in Final B.
Seoul rattled the net first. In first-half stoppage time, Ilyuchenko’s one-touch pass was collected by Na Sang-ho off the line. He immediately finished with his left foot to give Seoul the lead. However, the goal was disallowed after a video assistant referee (VAR) review showed he was offside.
However, Jeonbuk broke the tie in the second half. In the 15th minute of the second half, Ahn Hyun-beom’s killer pass was caught by Lee Jun-ho and he sent a ground ball cross. Na Sang-ho couldn’t clear it properly and it bounced back to Han Gyo-won, who slid it into the empty net for the first goal. Jeonbuk drove a wedge into the match. In the 30th minute of the second half, Ahn Hyun-beom’s cross from the left flank was headed in by Gustavo in the box. In the end, the game ended with Jeonbuk winning 2-0.
Ahn Hyun-beom, who started the game as a left wing forward, led his team to victory. Throughout the game, Ahn used his quick feet to harass Seoul’s defense and set up counterattacks. He also set up the first goal and assisted on the second goal, leading the team to Final A.
“I haven’t seen (a winger) since I was in middle school,” Ahn said in the Mix Zone after the game. The left wing itself was actually a bit of a challenge for me because I played almost exclusively at wingback in my professional career, except for the beginning. But the coach kept saying, “There are a lot of fullbacks now, but now (Song) Mingyu is out, and he’s injured, so he put me on the wing. Actually, I’m not going to complain, I’m going to do it for the team. Today, they just asked me to play on the left, so I said okay. I played on the left and I was involved in the two goals, so it feels good.”
Petrescu’s comments were quite different. In the post-match press conference, Petrescu said, “I had a discussion with Ahn Hyun-beom during training, and he told me that he usually plays at right back and wing back, but if he plays one space higher, he will be more comfortable on the left, so I accepted his opinion. It’s amazing that he was involved in both goals. I am satisfied that the player who joined Jeonbuk in the summer showed an attitude worthy of Jeonbuk.”
However, Ahn knew a day before the game that he would be playing on the left wing. He said, “I trained for the first time yesterday (July 7). When I was training yesterday, I realized for the first time that I was on the left side, and they asked me if I was comfortable on the right side or the left side, but I couldn’t say, ‘I can’t see there. I can see everything,’ so I said it doesn’t matter,” he said, causing the interviewer to laugh.
Ahn Hyun-beom was involved in two goals offensively, but he also had some awkward moments on defense. As a result, he had a big argument with Kim Jin-soo during the game. “Actually, it wasn’t my man-to-man. It was Park Soo-il’s man-to-man. But since Ki Sung-yong was in between, it was actually (Lee) Su-bin following him. But because Su-bin was also pulling, there was no space between them, so from Jin-su’s point of view, I told the winger to come down, and when we attacked, I told him that he could go out again. But now he came to me and said, “I know your personality. He’s very strong in his words and he opens up. So I laughed and said I’ll do better next time.”토토사이트
Coach Jürgen Klinsmann was in attendance at the game. Ahn once again impressed him with his performance in front of Klinsmann. “We met after the game. Coach Klinsmann told me to keep ‘keeping going’, to keep doing my job as I proved today, to keep working hard regardless of my position, and to prove it every time.”
Finally, Ahn talked about his goals for the rest of the season: “The first thing is to stay injury-free. Secondly, we are only five points behind Gwangju, but we have to fight for third place until the end. We also have the FA Cup quarterfinals, and we have an ACL game on the 25th. We have to work hard because we lost. The season is almost over, but there are still a lot of games left. We have to think about that and prepare well for the break.”