FIFA World Cup 2022: How South Korea’s Central Block Made Uruguay Slow And Passive – Tactical Analysis

For most of the match, Uruguay dominated possession of the ball, generating 10 shots, of which only one went on target.

However, having possession does not mean playing better, and a lot has been shown in this World Cup, in which many teams have proposed exquisite work off the ball that has given them results.

Their possession of the ball was very harmless, thanks to the defensive work that South Korea did in large part.

Diego Alonso’s team was not particularly special when it came to generating chances.

Uruguay reached the World Cup after the change of one of their greatest legends in its history, with the departure of Óscar Tabárez, the manager who led them to the glory of the Copa América and reached the semifinal of the 2010 World Cup.

His time came to an end after a cycle of an abysmal run of matches in terms of play and idea.

Diego Alonso took Tabárez’s legendary place and overcame what was expected to be an elimination in the South American qualifiers.

Paulo Bento’s team, for their part, following an excellent performance in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where they were very close to qualifying for the next round, including victories against Germany, went on to win the East Asian Championship in 2019 and qualify for the present tournament.

With established players like Tottenham Hotspur’s Heung-Min Son or Napoli‘s Kim Min-Jae, as well as a starting eleven full of players who have recently played in Europe, Bento sought to be as aggressive as Uruguay, with a very decent defensive plan.

In this tactical analysis, we examine the tactics and analysis of both teams and see how Uruguay and South Korea offered a really passive and tactically organised game plan.

Lineups

Diego Alonso came out onto the pitch with a 4-3-3 that changed to 4-4-2 in different phases and areas of the game.

Sergio Rochet was chosen in goal, with a back-four made up of Mathías Olivera as left-back, Jose María Giménez and Diego Godín as central defenders and Martín Cáceres as the right-back.

Rodrigo Bentancur was the #6, with Federico Valverde closer to him and a functional Matías Vecino, accompanied by Darwin Núñez and Facundo Pellistri on the wings and Luis Suárez as the centre-forward.

South Korea and Paulo Bento chose Seung Gyu Kim in goal, a back four also with Kim Moon-Hwoan at right back, Kim Min-Jae and Young Gwon-Kim in the middle of defence, and Kim Jin-Su on the left side as the full-back.

In-Beom Hwang, Jung Woo-Young, and Jae-Sung Lee formed a midfield three.