Soccer is not won by possession or pass success rate, but by goals. This is why K League 1 (Part 1) Incheon United, which started the season without a professional striker, needs to sharpen its spear.
Incheon lost 1-2 in the opening game of ‘Hanawon Q K League 1 2023’ against FC Seoul held at Seoul World Cup Stadium on February 25th. According to Bpro Eleven, which specializes in soccer statistics, Incheon had 61.9% of the market share that day, ahead of Seoul (38.1%). The pass success rate (83.9%) and number of times (590) also showed an advantage over Seoul (80.6%, 335 times), but the win and loss were opposite.
The cause was that it was smaller in front of the opponent’s penalty box. On this day, Incheon’s strike team consisted of a triangular formation of Jerso (Guinea-Bissau), Kim Bo-seop, and Mpoku (Democratic Republic of the Congo),먹튀검증 but there were no professional strikers among them. All of them have strengths in breaking through, but as a striker, where post play and aerial competition are important, the sense of weight has dropped. In the 12th minute of the second half, Hernandez (Brazil) was put in and the attack was revived, but the overwhelming performance could not be connected to victory.
Hernandez, who was recruited from K-League 2 (2nd division) Gyeongnam FC immediately after professional goal scorer Stephan Mugosa (Montenegro) moved to Vissel Kobe (Japan) last summer, performed beyond expectations with 4 goals and 4 assists in 8 games. The fire was put out urgently, but as revealed in the opening game, Incheon’s striker resources are insufficient this year.
Over the past two years, Incheon has used a desperate measure to raise tall defender Delbridge (Australia) to the forefront in the late game. This situation did not change this year, and Kim Dae-jung, who left the team after the contract expired last season, was re-signed just before the start of this season. Incheon coach Cho Seong-hwan said, “After the introduction of Hernandez in the match against Seoul, the performance has improved,” and “I think I need to prepare various things to strengthen my goal-making ability.”
On the 4th, Incheon will have a home opening game against promoted team Daejeon Hana Citizen at the Incheon Soccer Stadium. Attention is focusing on how Incheon, which has won all of their home opening matches over the past two years, will solve the problem of goal-making against Daejeon Hana.