On the second matchday of Group H, South Korea and Ghana met at the Education City Stadium.
Both teams failed to win their opening match and are still waiting for their first victory.
Three points today could have been important in their bid to book a place in the last 16.
In their opening match, the South Koreans sold themselves dearly but lacked the final consistency.
With Uruguay’s only chance coming from the aluminium twice, the final result was a draw.
Ghana‘s first match was against the Group H favourites.
Interim coach Otto Addo’s team narrowly lost 3-2 against Portugal, with the team’s comeback in injury time coming too late.
At the end of this match, Ghana are left with three points, which they earned through efficient attacking play in the first half.
South Korea could rarely overcome Ghana’s well-organised defence.
In this tactical analysis article, we will focus on Ghana’s defence and tactics, especially from the first half.
But we will also look at South Korea’s mistakes and the methods they used to make the comeback.
But first, we will start the analysis by introducing the two lineups.
Lineups
Paulo Bento sent his team out in a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 system.
Seung-Gyu Kim played in goal, and Moon-Hwan Kim, Min-Jae Kim, Young-Gwon Kim and Jin-Su Kim formed the back four in front of him.
South Korea’s two defensive midfielders were In-Beom Hwang and Woo-Young Jung.
Woo-Yeong Jeong was the attacking midfielder and Chang-Hoon Kwon and top star and captain Heung-Min Son started on the two flanks.
The nominal lone striker for South Korea was Gue-Sung Cho.
Addo lined up his team in a 4-2-3-1/ 4-4-2 system.
Lawrence Ati Zigi played in goal, and the back line consisted of Gideon Mensah, Mohammed Salisu, Daniel Amartey and Tariq Lamptey.
The defensive midfield line was formed by Salis Abdul Samed and Thomas Partey from Arsenal.
The attacking back three behind Athletic Club striker Inaki Williams consisted of Jordan Ayew, his brother André Ayew and Mohammed Kudus.
Ghana’s defensive performance
Ghana were particularly convincing in the first half with a united defensive performance and hardly allowed any chances for their opponents from South Korea.
Against the ball, they mostly formed a 4-4-2 system in which the distances between the two chains were kept very small.
