by STEVE HAN
South Korean soccer’s whiz kid Lee Seung-woo did it again. The 16-year-old scored and dished out four assists, giving his country an emphatic 7-1 win over Syria in the semifinal of the 2014 Asian Under-16 Championships on Wednesday. To add to the drama, next up for South Korea is North Korea in the final. The two Koreas will battle for the continental championship.
Against Syria, South Korea’s head coach Choi Jin-cheul played Lee, who scored four goals in three games going into the semifinal, as the team’s playmaker after using him as a primary goalscorer in the previous games. His decision was presumably based on the probability that the Syrians could focus on defending Lee which Japan did moderately well for much of the first half in the quarterfinal game. Lee, who plays for worldly renowned FC Barcelona’s youth team in Spain, had already become something of a star in this tournament with his sensational goals and Cristiano Ronaldo-esque swagger.
Choi’s tactical change sparked Korea’s offense as Lee dropped into midfield from his lone forward position and played telling passes to his teammates. Jang Gyeol-hee, another one of Korea’s Barcelona-based forwards, scored the go-ahead goal in the fifth minute of the game. Then, just before the halftime whistle, Lee converted a penalty kick and extended Korea’s lead, which he celebrated with a bizarre dance (see below video at around 0:45).
See the rest of the above video for Lee’s four assists, which displays his passing skills in and around the final third of the field.
But perhaps the moment that best captured the teenager’s edgy, competitive personality was when he missed a clear scoring opportunity at the start of the second half. Frustrated by his miss, Lee kicked the goal post, snatched the opposing goalkeeper’s towel from the net and tossed it into the ground out of anger.
The final versus North Korea will be Lee’s last game for South Korea before returning to Barcelona. He will represent Korea again next summer at the 2015 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Chile.
