Otto Addo was back in front of the media for his pre-South Korea press conference at the World Cup Stadium in Seoul on Monday.
Our head coach was asked for his reflections on Friday's 2-0 defeat to Japan, thoughts on the upcoming game against South Korea and more.
Here's everything he had to say on the following subjects...
On injuries and replacements
We are happy to be here. We were facing some difficulties with some injured players. It's also, to be honest, not so easy for us to get replacements because of visa problems and issues. It's always not possible for us to get fast replacements. But we prepared very well.
On South Korea
We saw a lot of matches from South Korea. We know what they are capable of. They have a lot of very good players in the defence, like Kim from Bayern Munich. But also up front, they are very strong with Lee from PSG and Son, definitely. Wang, for example, and another Lee from Mainz. So, we know them very well, they have had some good results. Also, the last result against Bolivia, they played very well. So, we know their strength. It is going to be a difficult match. I think it's going to be even, and we are looking forward to the match tomorrow.
On having a difficult match against Japan
Surely, I think and hope that we learn a lot of it. We knew that they were going to press us. We expect the same from South Korea to do that. For us, we know exactly what Korea can do, especially in the transition moments. We have to learn a lot of the mistakes that we did in the last game where we lost the ball in the build-up through pressing. After that, when we were unorganised and they were passing in the offensive transition, we collected the goal. I know that South Korea is very good in that as well. It's very important for us to be comfortable, to stay compact. Also, have a good rest defensively when we build up.
On avoiding set pieces in dangerous areas
In case we lose the ball, we are not open to conceding a goal. Surely, we have to avoid set pieces, especially around the box. We know the quality of Son. He's very, very good at free kicks. This will surely be the main objective for the game against South Korea. Nevertheless, despite the pressing, they play a good ball, have good players, so we have to watch out for everything. These are the two key things we have to watch out for. Like I said, I hope that we learn a lot from the last game. Last time we played against them, was probably against Son. It was three years ago.
On working with Son at Hamburg
He's a very good player. He always goes both ways; he also helped us to win a lot of games back then. We were happy to have him. I'd also like to address that in those days he didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Korean. We always used Dori Cha, a former teammate of mine for him to translate how we wanted to play and what we expected from him. The first days were very, very difficult at the beginning, I want to apologise to Son. He didn't play too much because I couldn't explain to him the tactics. It was difficult. But later, he did a great job for us in Hamburg, not only as a youth player, but also as a player in the first team. I'm happy for his career. It's going to be difficult to totally eliminate him because he has so many good skills.
On how to stop Son
He's good on the ball, he shoots left and right. We have to prevent and stop his shots, which are very, very crucial. He has good runs, we have to make good decisions, especially in our defence when to attack him, but also when to drop in case there's space and he can run into the space. It's a good game for our defenders. They will have a strong opponent, and it will be good for us to see how good they are. I know that they can do it. We're a little bit lucky that now he's not 24 or 25 anymore. He's also getting older, so I think we have a good chance to stop him.
GFA COMMUNICATIONS