‘Fifa Emperor’ Kim Jung-min continues to lead his team to victory on Day 2.
KT defeated China’s Wolves 3-1 in a Group B match on Day 2 of the FIFA Continental Cup 2023 in Shanghai, China, on Thursday. KT got off to a shaky start with the loss of ace Kwak Jun-hyuk in the first set. However, they bounced back with back-to-back wins from Kim Jung-min and Park Chan-hwa in the second and third sets. In the fourth set, Kim Jung-min came back to take down ‘Q’ to advance to the Group B Winners’ Final. In the winners’ final, KT will face Elite in a Korean team battle for a direct ticket to the quarterfinals.
Kwak Jun-hyuk, the first player on the board, played cautiously against ‘Q’. He focused on blocking his opponent’s attacks until the middle of the first half, and after the midpoint, he gradually started to move up the line and create offensive opportunities. In the second half, with the score tied at 0-0, Kwak continued to play calmly. He had several chances, but was unable to score, sending the game into overtime.
In the overtime period, Kwak continued to play calmly, but was unable to capitalize on his opponent’s mistakes. Just before the end of the game, he once again took advantage of his opponent’s mistake to get the ball and tried to score with his first touch using Cha Bum-geun, but he failed and the game went to penalty kicks. In the end, he lost the first set to Wolves with a score of 3:4.
In the second set, Kim Jong-min came into play. Kim has been playing well on the international stage lately, and he took advantage of the momentum and showed off his aggressiveness against Li Haohao. He utilized Cha Bum-geun to score the first point at the start of the second half. After that, he continued to use sharp penetrating passes to shake the opposing defense. Just before the end of the game, Kim Jung-min won a penalty kick and converted it to make the score 2-0 and balance the set.
In the third set, Park Chan-hwa faced off against ‘Maspi’. Facing a defensive-minded opponent, Park Chan-hwa calmly created chances from the flanks to take the lead. Following a sharp QW pass, Cha Bum-geun made it 2-0 with a brilliant shot. In the second half, the team continued their good momentum and overwhelmed ‘Maspi’ to solidify the game. Park Chan-hwa, who perfectly neutralized the opponent’s offside trap, scored a wedge goal to close the game 3-0.
Back in action for the fourth set, Kim “Cue” Jung-min faced Kwak “Junhyuk” Kwak in the first set. After blocking his opponent’s sharp attacks with calm 토토 defense, Kim scored his first goal just before the end of the first half to take a comfortable lead. In the second half, they extended the score to 3-0 based on their strong offense. Despite conceding two goals in the last minute of the second half, they managed to finish the game with a score of 3-2.
Meanwhile, Elite, who advanced to the winner’s bracket with KT, also reached the winner’s final thanks to two wins from Min Tae-hwan, who played flawlessly. In the loser’s bracket of Group A, Mirae Ensegae lost a close full-set match to Suzhou 666 of China. With the loss, Mirae EN Sejong wrapped up the FeCC.