Yang Hyung-mo, who gave Suwon Samsung a clean sheet in 10 games, talked about the decisive save that prevented the Matheus free kick.
Suwon Samsung, which played the 34th round of Hana Bank K League 2 2024 at Yongin Mir Stadium on Sunday, won 1-0 over FC Anyang. Suwon ranked sixth with 48 points, while top-ranked Anyang remained at 54 points, maintaining a gap of three points with second-ranked Asan FC (51 points), which had one more game.
Prior to this game, Suwon had a disgrace of losing nine consecutive games. There were also frequent games in which they gave the first run and followed it. As a result, the balance of offense and defense was likely to collapse, and even if they won or drew, they were often unhappy.
The match against Anyang was different. Coach Byun Sung-hwan made efforts to maintain balance between offense and defense in order to finish the first half 0-0 with a plan to secure a win in the second half against Anyang. Players also made mistakes sometimes, but generally defended well and allowed no points in the first half, and as a result, he succeeded in making a clean sheet after 10 games.
This is a part of Yang Hyung-mo’s contribution. After returning to the stadium through a match against Gyeongnam FC, Yang defended Suwon’s goal on the day as well. Mateus made several decisive saves in the 18th minute of the second half, including a powerful free kick that he hit towards the left goal from the right penalty arc, driving his team’s 1-0 victory.
Yang Hyung-mo was humble, saying, “I was able to score no point thanks to my teammates and fans.” “I was nervous when returning to the team due to injury and absence. Still, the players helped me well and the fans cheered for me, so I enjoyed the game.”
Mateus’ free kick was blocked by practicing after knowing his habit in advance. “Mateus prefers to kick hard when kicking a free kick. I thought it would be difficult for him to cross the defensive wall because of the close distance. So I preempted my position at the far post, but he kicked strongly in that direction. I was able to block it because what I predicted was right,” he said.
This game is all the more valuable because it was won against its rival Anyang. Suwon showed a mysterious performance this season, catching Anyang even though its performance was up and down. Again this time, the team had poor performance with one win, two draws and three losses in six games, but won 1-0 over Anyang to achieve three consecutive league matches.
Yang Hyung-mo is a veteran player of Suwon, so he knows the meaning of Anyang and its support derby better than anyone else. “Players in Suwon may feel a sense of distance from each other to realize the support derby. However, the fans know very well the importance of the support derby. It is fortunate that he has given the fans three wins out of three matches this year. I think he gave them a very small reward for their enthusiastic cheering,” Yang said, expressing satisfaction for giving the fans the most delighted victory. 스포츠토토
Suwon fans also often hand out Cheetos, a symbol of Liberley and a derogatory term for LG Anyang Cheetas, to players whenever Suwon wins against Anyang. Yang Hyung-mo, the captain of the team and the person who led the team’s victory, was seen receiving Cheetos from fans. “I didn’t eat it in front because I wanted to show professional side. I think it would be okay to have one when I get home,” Yang said with a smile.
Now, Suwon has four more games to go until the end of the league. If it wins all of these games, it is safe to say that it has at least qualified for the promotion playoff.
“I think the more I lost in advance, the more I felt anxious,” Yang Hyung-mo said. “However, if you put too much emphasis on clean sheets, you will often become stiff. Even when players are unable to play due to injury, I told them to relax as much as possible and not focus on scoreless games. Victory should be the goal, not scoreless games,” Yang said. “There are talks about our team’s many possibilities, but we will not move forward based on that. We clearly know where we have to go and are preparing for that day by day. As a captain, I will play a role in uniting the team so that all players can move forward without being swayed.”
