Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Ras Al Khaimah: Korea Republic Football Association President Cho Chung-yun has hailed his players’ commitment and attitude after the Koreans scored a stoppage time equaliser to force the final against Iraq to extra-time and then penalty shootout to win it 4-1 on Saturday.
Korea came from behind as Moon Chang-jin scored in the last kick of the match to cancel out Mohanad Abdulraheem’s first-half strike and goalkeeper Lee Chang-jin stopped the penalty from the tournament MVP to help Korea Republic win their 12th AFC U-19 Championship title.
“All the teams in the competition are of the same level and it was not easy for our team to reach this far. We were also lucky at times but we know our shortcomings now and we will work it out for the next year's world cup,” he told www.the-afc.com.
About the preparations for the next year's FIFA U-12 World Cup, he said: "Due to the players' club commitments, we can't keep the players together. We will have to release them after this competition and gather them again before the FIFA event. We will have intensive training camp before the FIFA competition.”
Regarding the future of these players, he said: "These players are future of Korean football. They will graduate to the Olympics team and we will surely invest more for this team which will help Korean football in a big way.