Mexico's 'Public Enemy No. 1'… Hwang In-beom's Confident Response

[Anchor]

The Mexican media has identified our national team's midfield commander, Hwang In-beom, as the player to watch. Upon hearing this, Hwang boosted team morale by stating that if the focus is on him, it will only create more opportunities for his teammates.

Yu Byeongmin reports.

[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, stating that their 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 think (Mexico) has a very fast transition speed. We have focused our preparations on those aspects.]

When told that the Mexican media had named him the player to watch, 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 great players on our team, I think 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, he expressed caution while also noting,

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

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

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

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

[Hwang In-beom/National Football Team Midfielder: I think I felt that we had done something truly valuable. I think the World Cup is a stage that gives us the motivation to head into the next match, thinking, 'We were able to help 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.