Our beloved South Korea national football team lost in a humiliating fashion to the Ivory Coast just three months before the World Cup. For our immediate thoughts regarding the match, see our update to the callups post here. In this post I want to go a bit further into this hydration break / water break issue that’s been discussed so much recently. And I’m in agreement with what’s being talked about in the Korean media right now: that perhaps the most ire-inducing point of this Ivory Coast friendly was that our coaches did basically nothing during the water break and blamed everything on “loss of focus” and “individual mistakes.”
For context, this World Cup we’re going to have two 3-minute water breaks separating each half, which effectively means that football more or less is becoming a game of four quarters rather than two halves.
Every single player interviewed by the media, HMB as well, said the exact same thing: in the first 22 minutes, the plays that we rehearsed and prepared for worked. They weren’t wrong; the first quarter of this game we looked the stronger side. We pressed high up the pitch; our fullbacks pinned down their fullbacks; our CBs closed down their wingers; and Kim Min Jae could do what he does best – cover large swathes of spaces on his own. But then the water break happened:
Hong Myung Bo said after the game that we “lost focus” during the water break. That is grossly inaccurate. Every journalist, analyst, and our own footballers are speaking out saying that wasn’t the issue. Even to random dudes (not in this football industry) like me, I could tell there was a stark difference between how the Ivorians treated the water break and how we treated the water break.
Over on the Ivorian side, during both water breaks they were huddled up together as a team. The first water break, their manager was giving instructions and spoke pretty much the entire duration of the break. The second break, the staff did all the talking while the manager did not. After the first water break they changed their game plan completely, and outplayed us 2-0 in the remainder of the first half, or what I will now refer to as the second quarter.
What did we do? The first water break, Hong Myung Bo had a brief chat with Hwang Hee Chan. Our coaches handed out water bottles while the footballers themselves were scattered and taking a nice break. Hong Myung Bo just stood around. The result: our game plan didn’t change at all. We pressed incoherently; they adapted and beat us on most 1v1s; and we got wrecked. The second water break? HMB had a brief chat with Son. That was it. Everyone else was chilling out, scattered from each other, taking a break. This is not a player problem; this is a managerial problem.
The difference post hydration break was stark. Ivory Coast properly adapted their playstyle to a very predictable Korean press. Instead of trying to build with their fullbacks, they long balled it straight to their wingers, which more often than not led to a 3 v 3 (their front three vs our 3 CBs) or a 4 attackers v 3 defenders (if their midfielder also started running upfield) type of counterattack. It almost seemed like they intentionally fished our FBs out of position. We straight up got tactically outplayed. Yes, a few individual mistakes here and there did directly lead to a few goals conceded but that’s missing the bigger picture. Even the best defenders in the world, put in such difficult situations time and time again, would make mistakes.
Mikel Arteta, head coach of Arsenal, is the kind of guy that uses INJURY BREAKS – that minute that you get while a player is down after a foul – to call everyone together to relay instructions and tactics. That’s how important any break in the game is. And how important it is for us to properly use that hydration break.
Don’t believe everything I’ve said so far? Hear from our #1 fullback Seol Young Woo (a loose translation from yours truly):
Q: The coach said that our concentration fell after the first hydration break. What do you think of that?
Seol Young Woo: Before the break, in my personal opinion, we were doing very well. But afterward… it’s not that we lost concentration but that our opponent prepared and adapted. To say that the result was impacted because of the hydration break and a lack of concentration is an excuse. We just drank water and took a break.
The fact that our players perceived the hydration break as a time to simply “drink water and take a break” is so problematic.
The tactical issue
We know that Hong Myung Bo is not a tactician. He is a stubborn man who has a plan A, and if that doesn’t work… he just does nothing. Time and time again, this man refuses to make tactical changes. The defending is especially problematic. Normally when you want to press, the whole team has to press. When you want to sit back and set up a block, the whole team must agree to do that. Today we saw numerous instances of one man pushing up to pressure while another man sits back, leaving so much space wide open for Ivorian attackers. This is not a starting XI issue but a managerial issue. This, unfortunately, is the mark of a really, really poorly coached team. You don’t blame the players for an issue like this; you blame the management.
What HMB has experimented with this year was a 3 ATB starting XI. And to his credit we have looked pretty decent playing this lineup in the past. It gave us more defensive balance, it allowed Minjae to really thrive; even at the cost of an attacking midfielder (our strongest position), it looked okay. But this friendly confirmed everything wrong with the 3 ATB for our team.
Firstly, it seems that we’re sending our LWB/RWB up way too high. On so many counterattacks they were straight up caught out of position. Your typical 3-ATB team keeps one fullback a little bit behind, or drops a CM a bit deeper, so you don’t leave gaping holes in the defense; we went way too aggressive. Hong Myung Bo told the media that if the fullbacks sit too deep, there are issues with the offense. Which can be true, but sending them both super high up the pitch is not ideal. No team in Europe goes this suicidal. And it really doesn’t matter whether we have a three back, four back, or whatever lineup. What matters is, according to Son Heung Min himself:
Q: What do you think about Hong Myung Bo’s 3 back formation?
Son: [it’s not simply that the three back is the problem]. What’s most important is how lir players position themselves, how we lure the opposition out of formation, and how we utilize that space.
Ivory Coast did this properly. We did not, and under Hong Myung Bo, we never have. Observe how the Ivorian forward Guessand repeatedly signaled to his team – stay back, don’t press, enduring that they don’t get pulled out of position. We then pushed too high up and got punished hard. Their players were on the same wavelength; we were not. We were unorganized and unbelievably incohesive. Under HMB and under this horrifically corrupt FA of ours so deluded into thinking they’re so great and actually doing good for Korean football… this will never change, not just on the senior national team but at every youth level as evidenced by our recent deteriorating U20 and U23 performances. How are we supposed to build a national identity when one incompetent coach plays one way then the next plays a totally different way? Anyway, I digress.
Second, Seol Young Woo (again) spoke out in the media saying that we are still not fully comfortable with a 3 ATB system (not something you want to hear 3 months before the World Cup starts) because most of the squad does not play this way for their clubs. And he’s right: aside from Jens Castrop Lee Tae Seok and sometimes Son Heung Min, nobody on our roster’s club plays 3-back. Lee Tae Seok and Jens Castrop are our two LBs, but still, it feels like Hong Myung Bo is trying to force a system onto our players, rather than letting the players do what they’re most comfortable with.
I really don’t know how to remedy our tactical ailments. Sacking a coach doesn’t fix things and the KFA doesn’t exactly find confidence that we can find a better replacement, but at this point I am starting to wonder if sacking HMB just needs to happen…
Some other thoughts to get out of the way:
Is this a golden generation
For our standards, I’d argue that yes, we have a golden generation on our hands. Son Heung Min may have peaked already and greats such as the entire 2002 squad and more recently Park Ji Sung Lee Chung Yong Ki Sung Yong Koo Ja Cheol and Park Chu Young have retired already, but for the first time we can field almost two entirely European league based starting XIs; some play in lower leagues, some play for the likes of Bayern Munich and PSG. As I said in the prior post, we have the personnel to be potentially an upper middle tier team on the world stage. Instead, we have become a laughingstock even in Asia, as the team that cannot beat even the weakest of AFC teams. Which is why it’s so tragic that the KFA and its poor handling of everything is costing us like this.
For people who think that Korean fans have way too high expectations
I want to push back on this statement a bit. As a whole yeah, it is true that fans’ expectations can sometimes get a bit high. The most visible incident of this was the yeot throwing incident in 2014, and I’d argue that this is not productive for management, for our footballers, and our nation.
But let’s get one thing clear – no Korean fan expects us to beat top opponents. We don’t even expect that we routinely beat near peer opponents. We don’t expect the team to always make it out of the group at a World Cup, even though with our personnel that SHOULD be the goal each year. Our expectations have fallen that much. Hong Myung Bo told the media “we’re not a top 10 team so please lower your expectations” and I’m not even going to get into how shameful it is to even tell the country to be OK with losing…
All us fans ask for, at this point, is the bare minimum: for the management and the FA to do their damn job or at least LOOK LIKE they’re trying; to give a shit about representing Korea on the world stage. The bare minimum for a football team manager would be to have a strategy in mind, make sure everyone on the pitch understands that strategy, execute that strategy, and if it doesn’t work, try something else… right? We somehow haven’t even been able to do that nearly two years into HMB’s tenure. Meanwhile, Japan does this seemingly unconsciously. And another thing that’d be nice: to stop throwing the players, or the expectations of fans, under the bus. Stop making excuses, and actually TRY to make this team better? All Hong Myung Bo does in the media is say “we’re doing well” or makes excuses to defend himself, but shouldn’t it be obvious to him that this makes him look even worse than he already does?
Austria updates:
Jens Castrop has returned to Germany. His foot is not healing in time to play vs Austria. A damn shame considering that a top Bundesliga LWB could’ve made our team look so much better.
11 subs – the two sides have negotiated to allow 11 subs not the usual 8 this game. Both sides will probably use all 11.
Hong Myung Bo has confirmed that SHM LJS and LKI will all start. LKI we know had a bit of an injury his last game for PSG before the break, while SHM reportedly had a cold (but still played the second half vs Ivory Coast..?)
Then he said this:
How tone deaf is this guy? Are we trying to lose? Is he trying to get fired? How the heck are friendlies being used to learn how to psychologically recover from heavy defeats? Last time HMB caused us heavy defeats right before a World Cup, we lucked out into getting just 1 point from 3 games. Furthermore, I don’t think HMB realizes that tactics = why our team is so bad. Playing this suicidally high against Austria – a team that at least on first glance seems to utilize their incredible depth in center mid to constantly interchange positions and create overloads in offense by having midfielders make runs forward – is, well, suicide.
Ralf Rangnick has also talked about Korea in his interviews. He praised Son as a world class player (classic lip service) who he wanted to sign for Hoffenheim while Son played for HSV. He also incorporated HHC as a player he followed while he was head coach at Leipzig and HHC was at Salzburg.
Most interestingly, he said that Korea was a “two faced team” (Korean media is using that term – two faces), pointing to our previous friendlies against Ivory Coast where we lost 4-0 but hit the post 3 times and lost 5-0 to Brazil but looked strong against the USA and Ghana. He wished that we would look better against Austria and that they will prepare accordingly.
He also directly called out the fact that losing so heavily vs Ivory Coast and Brazil means that despite having quality defenders, the team as a whole has problems with defending.
Then he was asked what he would do if he was the Korea coach:
I have never lost 5-0 to any team while in charge of Austria, but if I did I would focus on defensive stability above all else. So tomorrow, I expect Korea to defend much tighter and be more proactive and organized in their press, like we did against Ghana in the first half. [context: Austria beat Ghana 5-1 in their first friendly; the first half ended 1-0 to Austria though].
You would think… but this is the most stubborn Korean NT manager ever we’re talking about. I guarantee you not much will change.
Anyway, you can tell that Rangnick is a much much better manager than HMB already, right? Our guy just makes excuses. And somehow, Hong Myung Bo makes more than Ralf Rangnick and Hajime Moriyasu, almost on par with Spain’s de la Fuente. The KFA said in 2024 that Korean managers are now on the level of European managers so they deserve equal pay. But the results say otherwise, don’t they?
Expectations: lower them. Any manager worth their pay grade should be able to pick apart HMB pretty easily during water breaks or at half time. Unless HMB seriously overhauls the way we operate… we are looking at a repeat of 2014, cementing HMB’s legacy as a great player but terrible manager.
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Words cannot describe the utter despair I am feeling over our recent results. What the heck do we do? Can we fix anything in this short of a time? Can we emergency recall Bento and have our players recall the muscle memory to play his style? We are inevitably looking at a repeat of 2014 the way things stand right now.
I really really don’t know what the right answer here is… sacking a manager this late in the game can’t be great but I hear Ghana just sacked their manager today. After a 2-1 loss to Germany – I don’t know why or how badly that game went but presumably our loss was even more humiliating..
Jinseok is seriously goated for synthesizing all the media snippets into a cohesive narrative and noticing the little things like the differences in water breaks and communication between players. Thank you for all you do! Even if you’re just regurgitating what’s being discussed in the Korean media thank you for what you do because us English speakers can’t easily access Korean information!
When opposition coaches keep dissing yours (Ancelotti, Addo, now Rangnick), you should know you are doing something wrong. Sadly this is Hong Myung Bo we’re talking about.