The South Korean men’s soccer team will have to take countermeasures as misjudgment has occurred several times in the warm-up match held just before the Asian Cup. Previously, controversy over misjudgment continued at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) tournament, especially if misjudgment comes out in the tournament, it could be difficult to achieve the first championship in 64 years. 파워볼실시간
The national team played a warm-up match against Iraq in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is an off-season training site, on the 6th, but it was difficult to understand several times. Cho Kyu-sung (26, Mitty Whelan)’s shot hit the Iraqi defender’s hand, but a handball foul was not declared. Son Heung-min (32, Tottenham) tripped over the goalkeeper’s hand in the opponent’s box, but he was not given a penalty (PK). In particular, it became controversial that the opponent gave a yellow card to Lee Kang-in (23, Paris Saint-Germain), who reacted by beating him in the face first, and sent him off with accumulated warnings. Fortunately, this exit does not affect the Asian Cup, but it is too early to feel relieved as controversy over misjudgment was frequent in the previous AFC tournament.
South Korea was previously defeated 0-3 in the final match against Japan at the U-17 Asian Cup held in July last year after a dubious decision. Until the last minute of the first half, a tight match continued, but it was largely due to the fact that center back Ko Jong-hyun was sent off due to accumulated warnings while trying to stop the opponent from breaking through. It was neither a dangerous area nor a rough physical fight, but the referee immediately took out a yellow card. At the end of the second half, Kim Myung-joon tripped over the goalkeeper’s hand in the opponent’s box, but the PK was not declared. Thailand’s referee, Mongolchai Pechisri, who made the decision in question, was even more controversial as he was known to have been assigned to three games, half of Japan’s six games at the time.
In some cases, AFC directly admitted wrong judgment. In January 2019, the Korean team, led by then coach Paulo Bento, allowed an equalizer in the 32nd minute of the second half when they were leading 1-0 in the round of 16 at the Asian Cup against Bahrain, admitting that the goal was actually offside. The goal led to extra time and fortunately, Kim Jin-soo (32, Jeonbuk) advanced to the quarterfinals, but was defeated by Qatar 0-1.
As if aware of controversy over misjudgment in previous competitions, AFC said it will introduce semi-automatic offside reading technology (SAOT) for the first time in a continental competition from the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar. With the introduction of this technology, in which machines recognize whether they are offside first and inform them, it is expected that offside misjudgment will hardly occur.
The problem is handball fouls that determine whether a player is intentional or not, and fouls against physical contact that occurs during competition with the ball. This part leaves much room for the referee’s judgment. Korea, which seeks to win the championship, will likely have to gain multiple scores as early as possible to avoid damage such as numerical inferiority caused by misjudgment and dedication of PK goals.