Augsburg midfielder Koo Ja-cheol scores 3 hat tricks at home game

Augsburg midfielder Koo Ja-cheol scores 3 hat tricks at home game. March. 07, 2016 07:17. by 이승건기자 why@donga.com. Augsburg midfielder Koo Ja-cheol (27, Augsburg) has displayed his best performance since joining the German Bundesliga.

Koo scored three hat tricks against Leverkusen at a home game on Saturday. He scored the opening goal at fifth minute in the first half, before scoring another at 44th minute in the first, and the third at 12th minute in the second. It is the first time that Koo achieved hat tricks as a professional player who moved to Germany in the 2010-2011 season after joining the Jeju United of the K-League in 2007. He is also the second Korean to secure a hat trick in the Bundesliga after Son Heung-min who played for Bayer Leverkusen back in 2013.

Koo also had the joy of posting his individual record of overall goals scored in a regular season with seven goals. His previous record was five goals that he posted in the 2011-2012 season at Augsburg and the last season at Mainz.

As Augsburg has nine matches to play in the regular season, Koo has a strong chance to record double-digit goals. Offensive midfielder Koo is playing at a more front position than before as frontline strikers have suffered injuries in succession.

It is the first time for Augsburg to secure hat tricks since its promotion to the main league in the 2011-2012 season.

"WhoScored.com," the European soccer statistics site, has given Koo 9.4 points, the highest score points among the players in the two teams on the day. Except for Koo, no other players even won a score at the eight point level.

Augsburg, however, failed to keep its lead, ending the game tying 3-3. “I feel shame that my hat tricks were not sufficient to enable our team to secure three score points. Since our team did not win the match, I cannot afford to celebrate my goals,” Koo said at an interview after the match, expressing regret over the game’s outcome.