“Never give up!” Never give up on what you love.”
Cho So-hyun is as cheerful as ever when we meet at the team hotel in Sydney, Australia, ahead of the final match against Germany at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia-New Zealand 2023. It was her third World Cup, and she was determined to go beyond the round of 16 and reach the quarterfinals. After two consecutive losses, 0-2 to Colombia in the first round and 0-1 to Morocco in the second round, the team faced the final match against ‘FIFA’s No. 2’ Germany. It was said that a miracle would happen if they won by more than five goals. Human beings are at their best when they are at their lowest. Even when the mood sank to the abyss, “Iron Lady” Cho So-hyun remained a calm fighter. She kept a clear-eyed view of herself, but made it clear that she would challenge herself to the end with unyielding strength. She showed why Visa, the exclusive payment services partner for the Women’s World Cup, chose her to be the first South Korean athlete to play for Team Visa. Life and soccer don’t always go according to plan. This is a record of her courage and defiance in unexpected moments of despair.
“I honestly don’t care who we play,” she said before the game against Germany, a team everyone expected to lose. There is no easy opponent in the World Cup, whether it’s the first game or the last. It doesn’t matter the power, it doesn’t matter the ranking, it just matters whoever wins on the pitch wins. The winner takes all,” he said. “That’s what we are,” she said in response to the criticism that she didn’t play her best because of nerves and pressure. “If you can’t handle the pressure, you’re not good enough. You have to show it on the field. If you’re really good, you have to overcome it,” she said. “We want to show that Korean women’s soccer can still challenge, and we want to prove that we’re moving forward. We’re not going to take any chances. We want to show them that we will stick to them and bully them until the end, just like the tiger mark on our chest.”
South Korea’s first goal came in the sixth minute of the first half against Germany, and it was Cho So-hyun who was the star of the show. The South Korean goalkeeper found space at the back post and rattled the net with a calm right foot. It was a one-on-one battle with Merle Froms, the reigning European Champions League goalkeeper of the year. It was the seventh goal in Women’s World Cup history and the only goal scored by a Korean in the tournament. Cho became the only South Korean player to score two goals at a World Cup since her goal against Spain (2-1) in the round of 16 in Canada in 2015. The goal in the sixth minute (5 minutes, 2 seconds) was the fastest goal scored in the history of the Korean men’s and women’s World Cups, and the goal at 35 years, 40 days old was the oldest goal in Asian women’s soccer, the oldest goal in Korean men’s soccer, and the eighth oldest goal in Women’s World Cup history. South Korea finished the tournament with a valuable one-point victory over G ermany, the world’s top-ranked team. 바카라사이트
Against Germany, Cho became the first South Korean women’s soccer player to play in 10 World Cup matches. She wore the captain’s armband in Canada (four games) and France (three games), and played all three games in the third World Cup under Colin Bell. Tough