Friendly Match
I had just one friendly in between qualifying and the main tournament itself, a game in Abu Dhabi against the U.A.E., a game in which we ran out comfortable victors by 3 goals to 1, having created lots of chances which gave me cause for optimism ahead of my debut tournament.
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U23 Asia Nations Cup Draw
The groups for the U23 Asian Cup were drawn in November and we were handed a tough draw, coming up against Iran, Iraq and the U.A.E., who we'd beaten just days before the draw itself.
The tournament was held in China and Japan were the reigning champions having defeated South Korea in the 2016 final.
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Tournament Squad
As the deadline for squad submission fell just days before the South Korean league was loaded onto the database, I was forced to submit roughly the same squad that had qualified for the tournament itself. Still haven't seen James Milner anywhere.
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Group Stage
We kicked off the group with an undeserved win against Iran, the stats show they were the better team and this was true for the large majority of the game, a second-half hat-trick from Hwang Hee-Chang saved us from an opening game defeat.
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A crucial game against Iraq was up next and a defeat would have left qualification in the balance. The Iraqi's took the lead inside 5 minutes and I thought it just wasn't going to be our game, but a stirring fight back, coupled with some excellent football at times, meant we had qualified for the Last 8 with a game to spare.
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Two goals in the first six minutes sent us on the way to the Last 8 and a date with Qatar, a completely dominant performance from start to finish resulted in a bigger scoreline than when we last met just two months ago.
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Quarter Final
A goal inside two minutes from Hwang Hee-Chan looked to put us on our way to an easy passage to the Semi-Final, but a straight red card from Lee Jung-Bin on the quarter-hour mark left the tie in jeopardy. However, it didn't seem to affect the team too much as we went 3-0 up at half time. Al-Mal pulled one back for Qatar as they started to pile pressure but Hee-Chan ended all hopes of a comeback with a 4th in injury time.
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Semi Final
The latest instalment of the North/South Korea rivalry came in the shape of an U23s semi final, and it was the South that gained the upper hand. A sensational first half had South Korea going in 4-0 up at the break, two late North Korean goals were little to prevent South Korea reaching their second straight final.
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Final
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be as Australia came out 3-1 winners over an error-strewn South Korea side, two quick goals from Deni Juric put the Aussies 2-0 up before Kim Geon-Weong pulled one back on the stroke of half time. Isaac Bavcar ended hopes 5 minutes into the second half and left South Korea with consecutive defeats in the final.
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Tournament Stats
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As we can see, Hwang Hee-Chang was comfortably our best player, with 12 goal contributions in just 6 games, and was a pivotal part in reaching the final.
Well it just wasn't meant to be unfortunately, we had scored for fun throughout the competition but mistakes in the final cost us a chance for early silverware, I will be staying on as South Korea u23s manager as I would like to guide them into the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.
I hope you have enjoyed the first stages of my Hexagon Challenge, I will be updating tomorrow with news of my first club job!
