{"id":11501,"date":"2010-09-21T16:38:58","date_gmt":"2010-09-21T23:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/09\/21\/champs-will-show-steel-vows-pohangs-park\/"},"modified":"2010-09-21T16:38:58","modified_gmt":"2010-09-21T23:38:58","slug":"champs-will-show-steel-vows-pohangs-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2010\/09\/21\/champs-will-show-steel-vows-pohangs-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Champs will show steel vows Pohang’s Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
AFC – POHANG, Pohang Steelers coach Park Chang-hyun is confident his side can overturn a 2-1 first-leg deficit against Zob Ahan and reach the last four of the AFC Champions League.
<\/strong>
Mahdi Rajabzadeh’s second-half penalty condemned the Koreans to a narrow defeat last week in Esfahan after Mota’s long-range strike had cancelled out Igor Castro’s opener.<\/p>\n

However, Park expects the Iranians to try and protect their narrow advantage at the Steelyard and is convinced Pohang have the firepower to progress to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

“I found out that Zob Ahan tends to counter-attack in away games. That is what they do but we don’t have to care about their strategy too much,\u201d said Park, pictured during Tuesday\u2019s pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to focus on our game. Eventually we will bring them down with a lot of goals.” <\/p>\n

The visitors will have Iran international Mohammad Reza Khalatbari back after missing the first game through suspension and Park believes the striker represents Zob Ahan’s main threat.<\/p>\n

“I expect him to return, he will be a major attacking force for Zob Ahan even though he may be a little tired due to international duty. We have prepared well to face him,” he added.<\/p>\n

While Pohang may be struggling domestically in the lower reaches of the K-League, they have mounted a sturdy defence of the continental crown they won in Tokyo last November and Park rebuffed suggestions that the club has been in decline in the interim period.<\/p>\n

“That is wrong, we are just passing through a rough period,\u201d he insisted. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still strong and playing good football. Okay. I admit that we are still being affected by last year’s success but we are improving again. <\/p>\n

The match will also be held on Chuseok, one of the biggest holidays in Korea.<\/p>\n

“Despite that we are playing on a public holiday, Pohang fans will support us as they always do. We will celebrate Chuseok with goals and victory.” <\/p>\n

Pohang defender Kim Hyung-il was equally confident they can achieve a positive result against Zob Ahan, where a 1-0 victory will be enough to see them through.<\/p>\n

“From last week’s away game, we have gained more confidence. We will show this on the pitch,” he insisted.<\/p>\n

“Our attacking ability is as good as Zob Ahan’s, we can win because of it. As a defender, I will try not to concede a goal.<\/p>\n

“We will show what the champions can do tomorrow night.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – POHANG, Pohang Steelers coach Park Chang-hyun is confident his side can overturn a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22615,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions"],"views":2527,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501","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\/22615"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}