It’s about time we saw Hwang Sun-hong, 55, smile.

Hwang Sun-hong’s South Korean Asian Games team will take on Japan in the final of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China, on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.

After going undefeated through three group games, the Koreans reached the Round of 16 with wins over Kyrgyzstan, China and Uzbekistan. With just one game left to win the gold medal, they will face ‘nemesis’ Japan in the final.스포츠토토

“It’s good to win by a big margin, but it can be poison. We can’t wait to put this first game behind us.”

“Qualifying for the tournament is something to celebrate, but we won’t be satisfied until we win the gold medal.”

“I think soccer is not a simple game. It’s hard to win every game.”

“The biggest enemy is within us.”

These are the words that Hwang Sun-hong has emphasized every time he has defeated an opponent at the Asian Games.

At the tournament, Hwang has shown a perfect offensive and defensive balance. He scored 16 goals in the group stage alone and nine in the tournament. In total, he scored 25 goals and conceded only two. However, it was rare to see Hwang smiling, with only a brief glimpse of him celebrating after his team’s big wins.

Hwang’s South Korea is the best team in the tournament in terms of objective strength. He’s got midfielder Lee Kang-in of French giants Paris Saint-Germain, VfB Stuttgart’s Jung Woo-young, KAA Gent’s Hong Hyun-seok, FC Barcelona-bred midfielder Baek Seung-ho, Mitwylan defender Lee Han-beom, and “the best player in the history of the national team by age group” Cho Young-wook.

But coach Hwang Sun-hong never let his guard down. He even described ‘vigilance’ as the ‘biggest enemy’ and constantly instilled messages to his players.

Now we are really one step away. Hwang has been using the phrase “one step” or “one foot” in this tournament.

Cha Tae-sik (Won Bin), the protagonist of the movie “Uncle,” which was released in 2010 and became very popular, says this while pointing a gun at the villain Man-seok (Kim Hee-won) at the end of the movie.

“I still have one shot left.”

Coach Hwang Sun-hong said this at a press conference after South Korea’s victory over Uzbekistan. “We have one shot left. We’ll give it our all to win the gold medal.”

Let’s see if Hwang can keep a smile on his face as he takes that ‘one step’.