“It’s too bad.”
Lee Tae-seok (FC Seoul) met with reporters at the Mix Zone (co-coverage zone) shortly after losing 0-1 in the 11th round home game of Ulsan HD and Hana Bank K League 1 2024 at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 4th. In particular, his expression was full of regret throughout the interview with reporters, and he could not easily raise his face amid responsibility for the defeat.
On the day, Lee played full-time as a left full-back and played full-time as a starting player. He was called up to the Olympic national soccer team for the reason of participating in the 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup, but immediately returned to the team, playing full-time as a starting player for two consecutive matches. Despite his tight schedule that could be physically burdensome, Lee also displayed threatening scenes by blocking Ulsan’s attack and actively overlapping in the event of an attack, hitting effective shots.
According to B-Proleven, the official supplementary data provider of the K-League, Lee Tae-seok attempted 28 passes and succeeded 26 times, especially in the process, 17 forward passes and succeeded 15 times. In addition, he hit one shot to connect to an effective shot, and recorded one interception, four clearances, and three blocking attacks, showing good performance overall in both offense and defense.
As his team lost 0-1, however, Lee didn’t laugh. His expression on the mixed zone after the actual game was over showed deep regret. “I played well from the first half to the second half, but I’m very disappointed that I didn’t get a good result. The players were also quite disappointed and disappointed that they couldn’t bring a good result,” Lee said.
Lee Tae-seok said, “The team was not in a good situation after being drafted to the Olympic soccer team, but we played this game again when we ended our three-game losing streak in the match against Suwon FC (2-0 win). However, I feel a bit disappointed that we couldn’t continue the flow as we failed to win today.”
In particular, as 52,600 fans visited Sangambeol on the day, he received so much attention that he broke both the K-League’s largest number of spectators this season and the highest number of spectators in a single Korean professional sports game this year, but Lee expressed deep regret for not being able to give fans a victory. “Of course, it would be great if so many fans came to see me from the perspective of players. However, I am very sad and sorry that I couldn’t give fans a victory today.” 안전놀이터
Regarding the fact that Seoul failed to break the jinx for nearly seven years since October 2017 as it failed to cross Ulsan’s wall on the same day, Lee Tae-seok said, “Of course, I can’t help but think about (the jinx) as a player. Anyway, since we are in a position to challenge ourselves, it was important to show things that we can do with confidence. However, I lost today as a result, and I am very disappointed.” He bowed his head.