• Home
• /
• Football

Al Wahda are good individually: Seongnam coach

ABU DHABI – Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma FC coach Shin Tae Yong said that Al Wahda had the talent to compete on the big stage but they needed to tighten up on their team work.

Seongnam defeated Al Wahda 4-1 in the quarter-final of the FIFA Club World Cup at the Zayed Sports City on Saturday night. The win earned the AFC champions a semi-final match-up against Inter Milan on Wednesday.

Mauricio Molina (fourth), Sasa Ognenovski (30^th), Choi Sung Kuk (71^st) and Cho Dong Geon (81^st) scored for Seongnam. Baiano scored for the Al Wahda in the 27^th minute.

“Wahda did well but they were a little weak. I don’t think the difference between the two teams is the fitness levels. Al Wahda are good individually but our team work was excellent. And we used that to our advantage,” said Yong.

Yong did not expect that they would win 4-1. “It was a wonderful game against Al Wahda. It was a fair game but a high-scoring game. Al Wahda played really well. We did not think that we would win 4-1. The plan was to score early. And after we did score, it was a bit easier for us,” he said. Yong praised his midfielder Mauricio Molina who scored the opening goal. The Colombian, who made 10 appearances for UAE club Al Ain in 2004, pounced on a defensive lapse by Hamdan Al Kamali to score.

“There were a lot of missed opportunities. It might be that there were a concentration lapses. But Molina came up with a good performance,” Yong said. Yong said that it would be even more difficult against Inter Milan. “It will be tough against Inter Milan,” he said.

james@khaleejtimes.com