‘Uzbek player’ Kapase, who faced off against Son Heung-min, now faces off against Hwang Sun-hong as head coach
After facing Son Heung-min (31, Tottenham) on the pitch, Timur Kapadze (42) will meet Hwang Sun-hong (55) on the other side of the pine tree.
The South Korean Asian Games football team, led by Hwang Sun-hong, will take on Uzbekistan in the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games quarterfinals at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China, on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.
After a 2-0 victory over the ‘home’ team, China, to reach the quarterfinals, South Korea will face the ‘favorite’ Uzbekistan on the road to gold. Uzbekistan advanced to the semifinals with a 2-1 victory over Saudi Arabia prior to the Korea-China match.
Uzbekistan’s head coach, Timur Kapadze, is no stranger to South Korea. He played for Incheon United in the Korean K League back in 2011. He made 30 appearances in the K League, scoring five goals and providing five assists before leaving for Al Sharjah SC in 2012.
Since then, he has gone head-to-head with Son Heung-min. Kapadze played for the Uzbekistan national team in the 2014 World Cup Brazil final qualifying match between South Korea and Uzbekistan at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. South Korea won the match 1-0 on an own goal by Uzbekistan.
The Capazes faced South Korea again in the quarterfinals of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia, where they were unable to decide the match against Uzbekistan in 90 minutes of regulation time. The match went into extra time, where Son Heung-min scored a brace to secure a 2-0 victory. The midfielder, who wore the No. 18 shirt at the time, came on as a substitute.
Kapase knows Korea better than anyone at the Asian Games. His opponent this time is Hwang Sun-hong.
In fact, he’s already had one “battle of wits” with Hwang. It was last September. The Uzbekistan U-21 team, coached by Kapaje, played Hwang in a 1-1 draw at Hwaseong Stadium in Gyeonggi Province.
The first goal belonged to Uzbekistan. In the fifth minute of the second half, Ruslan Iyanov rattled the Korean net with a low, quick cross from the right. Iyanov scored the goal after South Korea’s backline was left completely open 토토사이트.
South Korea finally equalized late in the second half. In the 34th minute, Cho Hyun-taek scored an unbelievable goal from a free kick near the corner of the right box. The game ended in a draw.
The game was a rough affair with a lot of contact between players from both teams. Coach Capazé said at the time, “‘Today’s game could be rough. There could be fights,’ he told his players. We’ve had some rough moments in our previous unofficial games, so we were expecting a rough game today.”
Meanwhile, in a press conference after the match against Saudi Arabia on the first day, Capazé said, “Both South Korea and China are teams that want to win this tournament. They are very good and strong teams and we analyze their previous matches to prepare. We have time to watch and prepare for the match. Good luck to both teams. The stronger team will play us in the next round,” he said.
Let’s see if Hwang Sun-hong’s team can topple KapaZe this time around and make it to the final.