FC Seoul head coach Ahn Ik-soo has revealed how he joked about Palošević’s goal in the first leg of the Coupang Play Series against Atletico Madrid 바카라(Spain).
Seoul will host the Pohang Steelers in the 25th round of the Hana OneQ K League 1 2023 at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at Seoul World Cup Stadium. Pohang is in second place with 12 wins, 8 draws and 4 losses and 44 points, ahead of Seoul (10 wins, 7 draws and 37 points).
This is a crucial match for the second spot in the league. Pohang will be looking to widen the gap with a win against Seoul. Seoul, on the other hand, will be looking to close the gap to four points with a win against Pohang.
Recent trends have been favorable for Pohang. They are unbeaten in three games with two wins and a draw since losing to Ulsan Hyundai (0-1) on March 8. Their scoring power has also increased, exploding for a whopping seven goals in three games.
After losing to Jeonbuk Hyundai, Seoul put on a seven-goal fireworks show against Suwon FC, but have been winless in their next two games, scoring just one goal in a 1-1 draw.
Prior to the matchup, the K League took a short break for the All-Star break. During this time, Team K League players were selected to play in the Coupang Play Series against Atletico Madrid.
Seoul midfielder Palošević was one of the players selected for Team K League to face Atletico. Palošević scored a goal from the penalty spot and was active in both offense and defense, making aggressive tackles in defensive situations.
In a pre-match interview, head coach Ahn Ik-soo joked about Palošević’s performance against Atletico, saying, “He didn’t do that in Seoul…”.
When asked what he thought of Palošević’s performance in the Team K League and Atletico matches, Ahn laughed, saying, “He was tackling hard to be scouted by Diego Simeone, and when I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you do that in our team,’ he said, ‘Because the situation was such that I had to tackle hard.'”
“We’ll see if there are good players in Team K,” Simeone said before the match. Ahn was inspired by Simeone’s words and joked that Palosevic looked like he was playing hard.
“I intuited the game myself,” Ahn said. It’s a team that represents offense in the world. It’s like a textbook. The players probably learned a lot,” Ahn said.
As for the exclusion of foreign strikers such as Ilyuchenko and Bjorn Johnson from the roster, Ahn said, “It was a decision made while planning the game according to the opponent’s style,” adding, “Especially Bjorn Johnson, whose last game was in mid-May. He is training normally,” he said, explaining that he was not fit enough to play.