The Korean national soccer team showed a lot of heart. And I'm so thankful to have witnessed yet another inspirational run at the World Cup this year.
However, it's time to discuss what went wrong. I mean, we were supposed to shock the whole world again no? If not the final four, at least the round of 16, right?
So, what went wrong? Oh, I could think of a few things i guess...
1. Unrealistic Expectation - Come on! You didn't think we'd actually repeat what we did in 2002, did you? I mean, come onnn! Can you imagine how much pressure we put on the shoulders and legs of these players? Before the Cup began, Cha Doo-Ri said that just making it to the round of 16 would be the equivalent of doing what we did in 2002 in terms of success at this year's Cup. That's how much more difficult it was.
2. Injuries/Lack of Depth - whether you realize it or not, injuries hurt us a lot this time. In the game vs Switzerland, we didn't have Kim Young-Chul - one of our best defenders. Did you see how weak and disintegrated our defense was in that game? And we didn't have anyone off the bench to make up for that. Song Chong-Guk - probably one of the best players from the 2002 squad - played only one game (Togo) because he couldn't find his condition. He actually almost didn't even make the team because of his recent ankle injury but Coach Advocat put him on the roster because he believed in his experience and skills. But he didn't even get to play in the most important game vs Swiss because Song ultimately couldn't get back into his old form. Even Park Ji-Sung and Kim Nam-Il were fighting through injuries right up until the beginning of the Cup.
3. Lack of Continuity in Coaching - What I mean is that, Dick Advocat was actually the 3rd coach to take control of the team since Hiddink. We had Humberto M. J. Coelho and Johannes Franciscus Bonfrere before Dick Advocat brought some stability to our team. This gave Advocat very little time to work with the team, which obviously hurt us. Now, we have Pim Verbeek, who was the head assistant coach working with Advocat. Let's see how long he lasts..
4. Too Much Hope/Dependence on Park Ji-Sung - He's our best player, but he's not THAT good. Not yet anyway. But our whole strategy worked around him, and when he wasn't playing his best, we suffered. When he did play well, we played well. For instance, vs Togo, he created the Red card which led to Lee Chun-Soo's tying freekick, and playing against 10 players which ultimately allowed us to win the game. And also, he did score the tying goal vs France. We need to develop more players like him. This is no one man's game.
5. Lack of Experience - Besides Park Ji-Sung, Lee Young-Pyo, and Ahn Jung-Hwan, we had no players that have experience playing against the big boys in Europe. I'm talking about the Big Three leagues - English Premiere League, Spanish Primera League, and Italian Serie League. We were completely, overwhelmingly outplayed on individual level. In order to catch up to the big boys, we need to send more players to the big leagues.
6. Weak Sparring Partners - in 2006, we played vs UAE, Greece, Finland, Croatia, Denmark, LA Galaxy, Costa Rica, Mexico, Angola, Senegal, Bosnia, Norway, and Ghana. These games were supposed to prepare us for the Cup. However, only about the half of these countries actually made it to the Cup, and only the game vs Ghana revealed our weaknesses (which is good because we can learn from it) - but this was our LAST prep game. The other games might have given us false sense of hope until then. By the time we realized our problems, the Cup has already started.
Despite these harsh analysis, Korea has shown heart and hope. We did win our first ever Cup victory on a foreign soil. We did tie the world power France. And of course, we've shown the world once again what we are all about. I'm excited for the next one.
However, it's time to discuss what went wrong. I mean, we were supposed to shock the whole world again no? If not the final four, at least the round of 16, right?
So, what went wrong? Oh, I could think of a few things i guess...
1. Unrealistic Expectation - Come on! You didn't think we'd actually repeat what we did in 2002, did you? I mean, come onnn! Can you imagine how much pressure we put on the shoulders and legs of these players? Before the Cup began, Cha Doo-Ri said that just making it to the round of 16 would be the equivalent of doing what we did in 2002 in terms of success at this year's Cup. That's how much more difficult it was.
2. Injuries/Lack of Depth - whether you realize it or not, injuries hurt us a lot this time. In the game vs Switzerland, we didn't have Kim Young-Chul - one of our best defenders. Did you see how weak and disintegrated our defense was in that game? And we didn't have anyone off the bench to make up for that. Song Chong-Guk - probably one of the best players from the 2002 squad - played only one game (Togo) because he couldn't find his condition. He actually almost didn't even make the team because of his recent ankle injury but Coach Advocat put him on the roster because he believed in his experience and skills. But he didn't even get to play in the most important game vs Swiss because Song ultimately couldn't get back into his old form. Even Park Ji-Sung and Kim Nam-Il were fighting through injuries right up until the beginning of the Cup.
3. Lack of Continuity in Coaching - What I mean is that, Dick Advocat was actually the 3rd coach to take control of the team since Hiddink. We had Humberto M. J. Coelho and Johannes Franciscus Bonfrere before Dick Advocat brought some stability to our team. This gave Advocat very little time to work with the team, which obviously hurt us. Now, we have Pim Verbeek, who was the head assistant coach working with Advocat. Let's see how long he lasts..
4. Too Much Hope/Dependence on Park Ji-Sung - He's our best player, but he's not THAT good. Not yet anyway. But our whole strategy worked around him, and when he wasn't playing his best, we suffered. When he did play well, we played well. For instance, vs Togo, he created the Red card which led to Lee Chun-Soo's tying freekick, and playing against 10 players which ultimately allowed us to win the game. And also, he did score the tying goal vs France. We need to develop more players like him. This is no one man's game.
5. Lack of Experience - Besides Park Ji-Sung, Lee Young-Pyo, and Ahn Jung-Hwan, we had no players that have experience playing against the big boys in Europe. I'm talking about the Big Three leagues - English Premiere League, Spanish Primera League, and Italian Serie League. We were completely, overwhelmingly outplayed on individual level. In order to catch up to the big boys, we need to send more players to the big leagues.
6. Weak Sparring Partners - in 2006, we played vs UAE, Greece, Finland, Croatia, Denmark, LA Galaxy, Costa Rica, Mexico, Angola, Senegal, Bosnia, Norway, and Ghana. These games were supposed to prepare us for the Cup. However, only about the half of these countries actually made it to the Cup, and only the game vs Ghana revealed our weaknesses (which is good because we can learn from it) - but this was our LAST prep game. The other games might have given us false sense of hope until then. By the time we realized our problems, the Cup has already started.
Despite these harsh analysis, Korea has shown heart and hope. We did win our first ever Cup victory on a foreign soil. We did tie the world power France. And of course, we've shown the world once again what we are all about. I'm excited for the next one.
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