DOHA– South Korean center back Kwon Kyung-won has been so obsessed with preparing for Uruguay in an upcoming FIFA World Cup match that he once saw the veteran Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez in his dream.
Kwon said he foiled a scoring chance by Suarez in that dream. Kwon is now hoping he will get to do that in real life.
“I’ve been studying Suarez closely. He’s someone I’ll have to deal with the most if I get to play,” Kwon said Monday before a training session at Al Egla Training Site in Doha. “I’ve been thinking about him so much that I once saw him in a dream. I blocked his shot in that dream.”
Suarez gave South Korea nightmares 12 years ago in South Africa, when he scored twice for a 2-1 victory that knocked the Taegeuk Warriors out of the round of 16.
Now with 134 caps and 68 goals to his credit, Suarez, at 35, is gearing up for his fourth and likely final World Cup. The South Korea-Uruguay showdown is Thursday at Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, just west of Doha.
Kwon is preparing for his first World Cup at age 30. The left-footed center back may not get to play much, though, with Kim Young-gwon, another left-footed center back with far more international experience, established as the mainstay alongside right-footed stalwart Kim Min-jae.
Kwon said he is accustomed to watching matches from the bench and he knows how to stay prepared mentally and physically in such situations.
“The players we’re going to face all have great skills, and if we have any lapse in concentration, we’ll be in trouble,” Kwon said. “We’ve been talking about how we should stay focused for full 90 minutes, until the final whistle is blown.”
Head coach Paulo Bento has mostly used four backs on his defense, but recently hinted that he may come up with different formations against different opponents in the World Cup. His experiments with three backs haven’t always yielded success, but the back-three setup will likely give Kwon more playing time as one of three center backs.
“The coach is trying to get us ready for the first match, and we’re just trying to keep up and be ready to execute,” Kwon said. “We don’t know if we’re going to play with three backs or four backs. We just have to stay ready for whatever formation the coach wants to use.”
Kwon was one of the three final cuts before the 2018 World Cup, which made him savor his selection to the 2022 squad even more. But Kwon said he also caught himself celebrating too early, too soon, after the team was announced on Nov. 12.
“I was really excited for about five minutes after my name was called,” Kwon said. “But after that, I told myself I should celebrate after playing well at the World Cup. I didn’t want to see myself get too excited before even playing my first game.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency