"If They Focus on Me, Better Opportunities Will Open Up for My Teammates"

[Anchor]

Mexican media has identified Hwang In-beom as the primary player to watch on our national team. Upon hearing this, Hwang boosted team morale by stating that if the opposition focuses their defensive efforts on him, it will create more opportunities for his teammates.

Reporting by Yu Byeongmin.

[Reporter]

Hwang In-beom, who led the team to its first World Cup opening match victory in 16 years with a stellar performance of one goal and one assist against the Czech Republic, attended the official press conference as the team representative and expressed strong confidence, noting that the analysis of Mexico is complete.

[Hwang In-beom/National Football Team Midfielder: They are a team with completely different characteristics (from the Czech Republic), and I believe (Mexico) has a very fast transition speed. We have been preparing by focusing on those aspects.]

When told that the Mexican media considers him the number one threat, he predicted that it would actually work in our favor.

[Hwang In-beom/National Football Team Midfielder: I hope they pay a lot of attention to me. Since we have many other excellent players on our team, I believe that will create more opportunities for them.]

Regarding Santiago Giménez, his former Feyenoord teammate who scored a wonder goal against our national team in a friendly match, Hwang expressed caution while remaining confident.

[Hwang In-beom/National Football Team Midfielder: I know he is such a good player, and I can briefly share with (our defenders) which points we need to be careful about.]

He expressed his firm belief in the ironclad defense led by his close friend Kim Min-jae.

[Hwang In-beom/National Football Team Midfielder: (Kim) Min-jae leads the center well, and the players next to him also help with the defense, so I can say that I trust all of our players.]

Hwang promised to gift the public another happy day, just as the team did in the first match against the Czech Republic.

[Hwang In-beom/National Football Team Midfielder: I think we did something truly valuable. I feel that the World Cup is a stage that gives us the motivation to go into the next match with the thought, 'We helped so many people start their day with happiness.']

(Video coverage: Hwang In-seok | Video editing: Park Jeong-sam | Design: Kim Min-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.