"I want to raise Gwangju players to a higher level." Lee Jung-hyo's promise ahead of Al Hilal and ACLE quarterfinals

"I want to raise Gwangju players to a higher level." Lee Jung-hyo's promise ahead of Al Hilal and ACLE quarterfinals

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"Let's make dreams bigger for the players I'm coaching. Let me guide them. Let me invest more time and make efforts so that our players can be nurtured better and be treated better on the big stage." Gwangju FC manager Lee Jung-hyo replied to the question when asked why he started as a coach ahead of the away match against FC Seoul in September last year. On the day, Gwangju beat Seoul to break the K-League 1 record.
Since then, soccer fans are well aware of Gwangju's story. Gwangju finished the 2023 season by ranking third in the league, qualifying for the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE). In the following season, the team ranked ninth in the league amid various difficulties such as key resources transfer such as Lee Soon-min, Timo, Aaron and Um Ji-sung (summer transfer) and ban on recruitment of players from the summer transfer market. This year, it advanced to the quarterfinals by making a come-from-behind turnaround against Visselgobe in the round of 16 ACLE, and also rose to the second place in the league.
Lee is a man who cannot be left without the legend of Gwangju's success. He maximizes individual players' skills and creates synergy with players tactically. All of the players praise Lee's training sessions. It is a new level that he has never experienced while learning soccer, and it is said that the level of completion is high because he did not miss even the details. In addition, in terms of player management, not only he meticulously touches each player, but also his family and sweethearts gain trust from the players.
His interview skills have matured a lot, but he has always been as good as the player and the coach as the failure. Even after the match against Seoul on Wednesday, Lee's tendency was clearly revealed. "Our players must have had a hard time today, but I want to compliment them for bringing the victory to the end," Lee said when asked about Kim Kyung-min and Asani, who were given a warning due to a delay in time in the second half. "I made him swear. I made him do it because I really wanted to win today. The players probably had no intention to do that. They can blame me because I made them do it."

Now, Gwangju is looking higher. I want to sing a miracle again in the quarterfinals of ACLE. Al-Hilal is a team full of famous players such as João Cancelo, Yasin Bunu, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Hoobeng Neves and Sergei Milinkovich Savic, so it is difficult to win in reality. Still, Gwangju wants to show that they are the "opposite words of impossibility" like hangers hanging on their home stadiums.
Based on their experience in ACLE, players have improved a lot. Park Tae-joon, who was selected as a trainee on the day, has been reborn as a league-leading midfielder under the guidance of Lee. "Before I played against the Japanese team in ACLE, I had many thoughts that it would be difficult for a Korean midfielder to join the Japanese team," Park said. "Before I played against the Japanese team, I thought it would be difficult for me to join the Japanese team. However, while playing against the Japanese team, both Korean midfielders and Korean players deserved to go to Japan and face off against Japan," Park said. "Players are excited. We advanced to the quarterfinals. We beat Kobe, which we were weak at. We are preparing to play against him with confidence," Park said, renewing his commitment to make the game with Al-Hilal a time of learning.
Asani, 토토사이트 who is competing to become the top scorer with nine goals in the ACLE, said, "We should enjoy the moment, not feel pressure for the upcoming game. We should have fun." "We may use a miracle. I expect Al-Hilal to win every game, but I told him a lot that we can win if we play soccer," he said. "I expected that we would lose every game when we played against the Yokohama F. Marinos, but we showed good quality in the game. There is no reason why we can't do that in this game as well."
Goalkeeper Kim Kyung-min, who has experienced countless growths in Gwangju with Lee since 2022, said, "He is still growing. Players must continue to strive even when they are old. We are playing good soccer now, and as we play good soccer, other K-League teams seem to be affected a lot. I want to give more influence," he said. "Since we play good soccer, individual players also study how to make the opponent team harder in the stadium. During the game, there were more talks about emptying the seats and feeling good here than before. I am so happy and learning more," he said.