After enduring the ordeal, ‘Clean Sheet’ Choi Cheol-won… “Thank you to everyone who helped me with my mentality”
Choi Cheol-won (29), the goalkeeper of FC Seoul, expressed his gratitude to the fans who have waited for a long time.
Choi Cheol-won expressed his impressions of getting a clean sheet at the Suwon FC away game in the 10th round of the ‘Hanawon Q K League 1 2023’ held at Suwon Sports Complex on the 29th of last month.
On this day, Seoul won 3-0 thanks to Na Sang-ho’s multi-goal. Seoul took the lead with Han Chan-hee’s first goal in the first half, and took the victory in the second half with Na Sang-ho scoring two goals, including a penalty kick.
With the victory against Suwon FC, Seoul jumped to second place in the league with 19 points (6 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses). They started chasing the lead Ulsan Hyundai (8 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, 25 points).
Na Sang-ho’s multi-goal was brilliant in this game, but Choi Cheol-won’s goalless save was also good. Before the match, Seoul coach Ahn Ik-soo drew attention by selecting Choi Cheol-won as the goalkeeper for the match against Suwon FC. Choi Cheol-won wore goalkeeper gloves for the first time since the match against Jeju United in the 4th round in March.
Choi Cheol-won, who came as a starter after six league matches, reciprocated Ahn’s expectations by recording a clean sheet while keeping the goal firmly with stable performances.
In the mixed zone after the game, Choi Cheol-won expressed his feelings, saying, “I prepared a lot to prepare for the match against Suwon. I think this may be why I appeared on the pitch and got a clean sheet.”
Choi Cheol-won is a goalkeeper that Seoul ambitiously recruited ahead of the 2023 season. As Yang Han-bin, who had been a main player until last season, headed to Japan’s J-League Cerezo Osaka, Seoul brought in Choi Cheol-won, who played as a ‘one-club man’ in K-League 2 Bucheon, as a replacement.
Choi Cheol-won was one of the best goalkeepers in the K-League 2 last season. Choi Cheol-won, who participated in 38 K-League 2 matches in the 2022 season and was selected 7 times in the round best 11, took first place with an overwhelming difference in the K-League 2 2022 season’Goalkeeper Savings Index’ announced by the Korea Professional Football Federation.
Choi Cheol-won entered Seoul with such high expectations and started as a starter from the opening game, but soon suffered from a lot of criticism.
In the third round of the league against Ulsan, he caught a defender’s back pass with his hand and gave away an indirect free kick that led to the winning goal, and was pointed out as the culprit behind the 1-2 defeat.
In the next game, against Jeju in the 4th round of the league, he caught and missed a ground ball cross, allowing an equalizer. Fortunately, Seoul scored another goal to take the lead and won 2-1, but criticism poured out on Choi Cheol-won, who made two mistakes in a row.
From the 5th round of the league, Seoul replaced Choi Cheol-won with Baek Jong-beom as the starting pitcher. To make matters worse, Baek Jong-beom showed good performance and a crisis came in the first year of joining the team, but Choi Cheol-won, who had time to persevere, successfully seized the given opportunity through the match against Suwon FC and fired a flare of revival.
Choi Cheol-won, who succeeded in overcoming difficult times, confessed that director Ahn’s advice was a great help.
Choi Cheol-won said, “When I was having a bad mentality, the coach (Ahn Ik-soo) took good care of me.”
He added, “Not only the manager, but the players and goalkeeper coaches all helped me get my mentality right.”
Regarding the fact that he has a competitive system with Baek Jong-beom, he said, “(Baek) Jong-beom has been steadily preparing a lot from the past, so I think the competitive system is definitely encouraging.” It seems to work,” he said.
Lastly, he expressed his gratitude to the fans who waited with him, saying, “I came out with a lot of mentality, so thank you for waiting and supporting me a lot.”
He also pledged, “Now I will play at home against Jeonbuk Hyundai, and I will prepare thoroughly so that I can show more performances to the fans at home games 토스카지노.”
Jeonbuk invites Jeonbuk to their home on Children’s Day on the 5th to face off in the 11th round of the league. Attention is focusing on whether Choi Cheol-won will be able to improve his confidence by winning a scoreless game once again as a starter.