BREAKING NEWS: KIM JIN SOO IS OUT OF THE WORLD CUP DUE TO AN ANKLE INJURY, ACCORDING TO KFA. PARK JOO HO (!!!) WILL TAKE HIS PLACE.
Tim here. Roy will have his complete Match Report later, but for now, just my player ratings.
Well, that wasn’t the most convincing of performances. Scratch that, it was far from acceptable. Just plain bad. One **could** bear in mind its only a friendly and not worry too much about it, but as far as I’m concerned, this game reflects pretty much how unprepared we are against a defensively compact team like Tunisia, Algeria or maybe even Russia.
Although there’s an expression going along that says “Say as much as you know, for then you’ll look like you know everything”, or something along those lines, I must confess I didn’t see the entire game, due to other commitments better known as school. (I’m presently unable to find a full game video.) Here’s my player ratings based on what I saw and read.
6 is acceptably average. Heh. Far from what today was, no?
STARTING XI
Jung Sung Ryong (4.5) <sighs> A typical Jung performance. Stops what is shot right at him, doesn’t offer much else. Flailing helplessly at crosses and corners, and getting nothing but air. Although he wore the number 21 today, I’d still expect him to be our no.1 keeper in Brazil. It’s unfortunately a no-brainer.
Lee Yong (5) Not terrible, more invisible. It was a real backline fail today, cohesively as a unit. Tunisia did a good job to make everyone look really bad, and that includes the fullbacks and the wingers, who were closed down + had their passing lanes shut down.
Kim Young Gwon (4) Aaah. The CB’s seem to have that one mindfart every game, and today there were a few. At fault for the Tunisian goal, the CB’s were caught playing too high and were cleanly beaten by pace up the middle. He did have a header chance in the first half though.
Hong Jeong Ho (4) He’s not hurt. He twisted his ankle, but not seriously enough to warrant a trip to the byungwon (hospital.) Refer to KYG.
Yun Suk Young (4) Suckish. Yun looked sloppy, tired, lost and his crosses were waaay off target for the most part. One of them I swear looked like a field goal attempt in *American* football.
Han Kook Young (5) Positive: He’s becoming known for his often-effective sliding tackles. Negative: They’re sliding tackles. And badly timed sliding tackles can mean cards. If this happens in the WC, it’s an issue. Han seems to be walking on a tightrope for me.
Ki Sung Yueng (4) Ki seemed there for the ride today. Simply atrocious. At times tried to do too much = attack halted. Other times didn’t do enough = attack halted. Not the calm, cool, collected playmaker we know. Very uncharacteristic. Maybe it’s just because he’s coming off an injury?
Son Heung Min (5) Lost. Ineffective. Had a powerful shot and is still a threat, but the attacking movement from the MF’s was poor today. Timing seemed off.
Koo Ja Cheol (4.5) Captain Koo didn’t do much either. Sad attacking movement today. Looked dead and helpless out there.
Lee Chung Yong (6) At least someone was trying. Chungy was perhaps the only player who, in my opinion, played respectably today. He still hesitates to shoot though. Needs more confidence. Heck the whole team could do with that after this game. We all do, I reckon.
Park Ju Young (4.5) “What do I do with you?” Outmatched in the air and really invisible. Unable to help break down the Tunisian bus. Reminiscent of his club performances. (What club performances? you say.)
SUBS
Lee Keun Ho (5.5) Didn’t offer that much more. Maybe helped out a little more with the attacking movement. Came on for Captain Koo (armband moved to Chungy when he came off, if you were wondering.)
Kwak Tae Hwi (5) Came on for (thankfully not badly) injured Hong Jeong Ho. Did he do much? Certainly didn’t bring new life into the team. Could he be useful, however, in a mix with one of the CB’s in the WC? Since the two CB’s play quite similarly? (Just a thought.)
Kim Bo Kyung (5) Deliveries were off today. Same old play that holds up the attack.
Kim Shin Wook (5) Came on for Park. Didn’t do much better.
Ha Dae Sung (5.5) Had a close chance near the end. Came on for Ki.
Ji Dong Won (5.5) Showed better movement. Came on for Chungy.
THE BOSS
Hong Myung Bo (4.5) We now know that this is not the way to break through a parked bus. His starting XI was exactly what we expected. But Korea did not show enough attacking cohesiveness. That “gel” factor seemed once more to be nearly non-existent. It wasn’t for a lack of trying, but rather inability to command the game and exploit the passing lanes. Hong has work to do in the training camp now. Hopefully this serves as a wake-up call, and we’ll see if Hong is going to try something different against defensively-compact teams of the likes of Algeria, heck even Russia to a certain extent.
Tell us your thoughts on the performance in the comment section below!
If 6 is the acceptable average a la who scored, then I think Han Kook Young also deserves a 6 or 7 since he did his job right?
And Jung does not warrant a 4.5, he made the right decisions today and didn’t make any retarded mistakes.
And I think you should give Yoon a little more credit – as much as his crosses sucked he made very good runs. None of our other left backs make runs behind the defense like he does. He’ll get the end product down soon for sure.
Counter-thoughts:
1)Maybe I was a little critical on Han Kook Young. The pain was still wearing off.
2)Maybe not retarded but he did flap his arms in the air helplessly with the aim of punching the ball and got nothing. I think this happened twice at least.
3)What’s the use of good runs if you can’t cross the ball? Well, yes, it helps the attacking movement, off-the-ball movement, i get that, but what’s the use, for example, of a finisher that can’t finish? (LKH anyone?) What’s the point of buying an apple if you’re not going to eat it? (**WEIRD&COMPLETELY RANDOM** comparison.) 🙂
I hear ya though
Hey,
I recently discovered this website and it is great, keep up the great work!
I will have to disagree with your view on Jung, as I thought he was a pretty good keeper today. 정성룡 never really “flailed” at anything; he . His only failing is the one goal which was a one-on-one and the fault of the crappy defense, so it is harsh to criticize him for that. Maybe Jung should have rushed at the Tunisia guy who scored instead of staying on his line, but… hm, I don’t know. Anyways, Jung has a lot of experience and I could really tell in this match. He rushed out at the right times and had decent positioning. He punted the ball away from dangerous spots during set pieces and also got his fingers on the ball to push it away while not conceding corners and generally getting it to his teammates. Yeah, his goalie reflexes are not great and other goalies might have been able to save that one-on-one shot, but Jung was at least a solid 6 (acceptably average) in my opinion. JSR > KSG/LBY in my opinion
Highlights are on youtube if you want to watch Jung performance /watch?v=Z57Kt_FLuvI and /watch?v=LcEaVpqGU0Y (i only watched highlights so I could only really observe Jung)
My ratings (no explanations)
Jung SR – 5.5
Lee Y – 5
Hong JH – 5
Kim YG – 5
Yoon SY – 5
Ki SY – 5
Han KY – 6
Lee CY – 6
Koo JC – 5
Son HM – 5
Park CY – 5
Essentially almost all were well below average. As a team it was a poor effort, but there were no real glaring individual errors that warrant a massive strike against them.
yes this
Even though this wasn’t a fun post to read (b/c of the obvious loss), but I just want to say that your blog is a godsend for someone who doesn’t speak Korean very fluently + obsessed with SKNFT.
I read your other game reviews & bunch of other analyses and I learned a lot from it. (I just wish that you were able to find a full game somewhere online for an accurate rating)
But nonetheless keep up the great work!
After watching the full game highlights I probably was a little harsh on Jung and maybe 4’s were a bit too low. Regardless I’ll have hopefully more accurate ratings for Te Ghana friendly + World Cup time. Exciting days! Stay tuned!
And yes, this blog is the best!!! I say this because 1) My hangul is no good and 2) I LOVE KOREA NT. And to think I’m writing for it now – it’s really a blast!