{"id":11485,"date":"2010-09-14T20:44:50","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T03:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/09\/14\/past-is-past-for-pohangs-park\/"},"modified":"2010-09-14T20:44:50","modified_gmt":"2010-09-15T03:44:50","slug":"past-is-past-for-pohangs-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/09\/14\/past-is-past-for-pohangs-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Past is past for Pohang\u2019s Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"acl05-trophyshot-02\"AFC – ESFAHAN, Pohang Steelers coach Park Chang-hyun has called on his players to forget the turmoil of the year so far and prove their class as defending AFC Champions League champions in their quarter-final first-leg meeting with Iranians Zob Ahan at Foolad Shahr stadium on Wednesday.
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Since their victory in November 2009, key players like Stevica Ristic, Denilson and captain Hwang Jae-won have left the club, while coach Waldemar Lemos was sacked just before their last 16 victory against Japan’s Kashima Antlers.<\/p>\n

But Park says it is now time to draw a line beneath the upheaval and defend their crown.<\/p>\n

“We have to show everyone why we became champions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve changed our coach and at the moment we’re okay. I hope that these changes will see us gain better results.”<\/p>\n

But the Koreans go into the match on the back of two defeats, one of them a 4-1 thrashing by FC Seoul.<\/p>\n

Park believes the best way to arrest this form is to rely on home-grown players.<\/p>\n

“I’ve only brought two Brazilians, Almir and Mota, to Esfahan,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur Koreans (players) have responded better and I’ve decided not to bring any other foreigners. But these (two) are very dangerous and will help us.”<\/p>\n

Mota is the leading scorer in the competition with nine goals.<\/p>\n

Park has no worries over injuries or suspensions but is concerned about the altitude of the central Iranian city.<\/p>\n

While Pohang play at sea level, Esfahan is at an altitude of 1,500 metres which he admits could have an impact on the match.<\/p>\n

“That’s why we came here six days ago, to acclimatise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

“But after yesterday’s training session, the players were very tired which I think is because of the altitude.”<\/p>\n

On his tactics for the match, the 44-year-old suggested a wait-and-see strategy saying: “We normally play with a 4-3-3 formation, but I think I will have to change that.<\/p>\n

“In the first half we have to play with caution so that in the second half we can play like we usually do and come away with something.<\/p>\n

“We’ve watched videos of them in the ACL but it’s difficult to analyse them because the films are of last season.<\/p>\n

“But we must not forget that there is still a second leg.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – ESFAHAN, Pohang Steelers coach Park Chang-hyun has called on his players to forget…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":11484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":2350,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}