Hong Myeong-Bo has announced his Greece callups for the friendly on March 5 in Athens. One player makes his long awaited return, and there are a couple other surprise calls.
The list:
GK: Jung Sung-Ryong (Suwon), Kim Seung-Gyu (Ulsan), Kim Jin-Hyun (Cerezo Osaka)
DF: Lee Yong (Ulsan), Park Joo-Ho (Mainz), Kim Jin-Su (Niigata Albirex), Cha Du-Ri (Seoul), Kwak Tae-Hwi (Al-Hilal), Hwang Seok-Ho (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Kim Young-Gwon (Guangzhou Evergrande), Hong Jeong-Ho (Augsburg)
MF: Ha Dae-Sung (Beijing Guoan), Park Jong-Woo (Guangzhou R&F), Ki Sung-Yueng (Sunderland), Han Kook-Young (Shonan Bellmare), Koo Ja-Cheol (Mainz), Kim Bo-Kyung (Cardiff), Nam Tae-Hee (Lekhwiya), Lee Chung-Yong (Bolton), Son Heung-Min (Bayer Leverkusen)
FW: Ji Dong-Won (Augsburg), Park Chu-Young (Watford), Lee Keun-Ho (Sangju), Kim Shin-Wook (Ulsan)
The big news will be the re-call of Park Chu-Young. The on-loan Watford forward hasn’t appeared for the national team since Hong took over, but has long been on fans’ minds given the team’s scoring woes.
The other news, is that Seoul defender Cha Du-Ri has earned himself a re-call as well. Cha had a mixed season (from what I saw) with Seoul last year. While he was still decent by K League standards, he looks far from the rampaging fullback that we saw and loved in years past. I suspect he’s there to bring some experience to the squad.
Another re-called player is Nam Tae-Hee, who admittedly I have doubts about. Nam went on a fantastic scoring spree for Lekhwiya, which certainly played into Hong’s mind.
While he probably won’t have any impact on things, the inclusion of Cerezo Osaka’s Kim Jin-Hyun is also a new thing.
More on the Greece game in the coming weeks.
Kim Jin Hyun was a pretty good keeper when i saw him play. Better option than Lee Bum Young in my opinion (no offense to Busan I’Park fans).
even though it’s just a 3rd choice keeper I’m talking about.
Admittedly I haven’t watched Cerezo Osaka much, so I can’t claim to really know anything about Kim Jin-Hyun. But I am a Busan IPark fan, so . . .
Loving the Cha call up
but admittedly it does show a bit of desperation as if we haven’t already seen a bit of this from Hong recently
really pleased with the call-ups.. especially happy to see a group of midfielders that i know are all reasonably capable. finally no ko yo han, lee seung gi, yeom ki hun!! Surprised with cha over kim chang soo, but I guess it just solidifies lee yong’s RB spot. Seems like most of the roster has taken shape and for the most part it’s pretty clear who the starters will be.
Tomorrow I’ll add some of Hong’s presser to the post, but Hong did say that Kim Chang-Soo is still in his thoughts. Hong said he called Cha and not Kim because Cha has been doing well in Seoul’s preseason while Kim has just started training with Kashiwa Reysol.
Ki will be most pleased about Cha Im willing to bet
something to be said about team chemistry too
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