South Korea's Lee Kang-In Shines with Top Flashscore Rating on Opening Day
He danced among the Czech defenders with extraordinary ease, earning a rating of 9.1 according to Flashscore's new player evaluation system! But what lies behind the tournament's best mark so far?
Lee Kang-In was particularly dominant in his creative midfield role. He crafted three significant opportunities, one of which resulted in the equaliser and consequently an assist.
Also noteworthy are his five passes into the Czech penalty area and an exceptional 100% passing accuracy (38 out of 38).
The midfielder of the two-time Champions League winners was simply flawless, much like his club over the last two seasons. However, this was to be expected from the Incheon native.
"The individual quality of several Korean players was highlighted as one of the team's main strengths even before the match, and this was confirmed on the pitch, largely thanks to the performances of Hwang In-Beom, Lee Jae-Sung and Lee Kang-In," said Flashscore data analyst Marek Kabát.
The Czech defenders could not keep pace with the South Korean star and resorted to fouling him on four occasions. At other times, that tactic failed too, as Lee completed five successful dribbles. For comparison, all other players in the match managed just six dribbles combined!
Lee also excelled in duels. The South Korean star won 10 out of 14 duels (a 71% success rate), something the Czech centre-backs (Robin Hranac with 29% and Stepan Chaloupek with 25%) could only imagine.
In short, it was a comprehensive performance that would stand out even against stronger opposition.
Productive In-Beom
The second-highest rating in the match went to Hwang In-Beom, who contributed to South Korea's three points with a goal and an assist. In addition to his scoring, the Feyenoord midfielder, who dictated the tempo of the game, also recorded five successful progressive passes and found a teammate in the attacking third seven times.
"The Koreans absolutely dominated in moving the ball forward and creating chances, which was the key difference in the match," Kabát added.
His superb assist for the winning goal says it all, with an xA (expected assist) value of 0.47. Hwang also showed excellent finishing, converting his chance with an xG of 0.36 into a shot with an xGOT of 0.91.
The Czech defence simply could not find an answer to the Koreans' interplay. "Both goals were preceded by longer spells of possession with several horizontal passes, followed by a longer, direct vertical ball that led to the goal-scoring situation," Kabát concluded his data analysis.