Full writeup to follow but thought I’d just at least get some dialogue started here – I give up. I feel so apathetic towards Korean football right now. We opened the Tavern in 2012 and ever since we’ve been in intense decline. Our senior team is in shambles, our youth teams are in shambles (our U23 just lost 4-1 to the USA U21 team yesterday), everything is in shambles. Our group is literally Mexico, Czechia, and South Africa – probably the easiest group we’ve ever had. And we’re going to squander it. For the first time in a long time I just don’t care anymore. I’m jaded and burnt out. Everyone except the KFA and Hong Myung Bo know that we’re heading towards a repeat of 2014 if not worse. The past few friendlies – not just today and Ivory Coast but stretching back to Brazil and Ghana – proved that under this joke of a manager, we don’t know how to attack, we don’t know how to defend; we quite simply do not how to play football. All of this stemming from the fact that grifters and conmen run the KFA and clearly don’t give a damn about improving the state of Korean football. More thoughts to come, but I don’t know if I even have the motivation to keep following Korean football like this anymore. Jinseok out.
I have no words… we’re screwed. Fuck the KFA, fuck Hong Myung Bo. Let’s see what kind of bizarre excuses he makes to the media later
I didn’t watch the match but were there any positive takeaways from the match? It couldn’t be all bad. Were there moments or any glimmers of positivity? Austria isn’t a bad team either. Yikes!
You could say we weren’t as bad as we were against Ivory Coast but that’s such a low bar and one set by HMB’s own incompetence. So I’d argue that yes there was not one single positive takeaway from this match. Terrible in defense, invisible in attack.
I think the Cote D’Ivoire match clearly indicated to me, that Korea against actual decent teams outside of Asia, can’t get away with making easy rudimentary off the ball mistakes, because punishment will be laid and heavily. The way that the #14 defender got turned easily on the 2nd goal, and 50/50 bodies on the first goal, and there wasn’t any kind of decent backside defense to help, made it clear these Korean players just quite frankly, in a collective sense, don’t have much cohesion doing all the off the ball things a non Tier 1 team needs to do to keep it manageable and tight. Also that idiot moronic player for Celtic who tried to head the ball back to the goalie defending a corner, while also bending down to do it, tells me that is nothing about tactics. That’s just stupidity and low situational game football IQ, it’s just so stupid it defies belief. I’m sure some of that is due to tactics, but honestly, that’s just a small component. The KMNT as a collective still have massive, massive issues doing all the little things you need to do regarding basic, simple game management.
I thought the exact same thing about Yang Hyun-jun’s idiotic mistake. Even when I played as a high schooler, I don’t know many who would have done what he did.
I watched the highlights and it looks at least that the Korean team did play with a bit more intention than against the Ivory Coast but the defense still seems like its rudderless. Son seems like he is out of form. I thought that he was just being misused at LAFC with their new coach, but he definitely lacks the touch and striking ability he once had at his peak. I guess the only positive takeaway is that they took this match a lot more seriously than against the Ivory Coast. :/
Yeah I might not hang in there much longer, and I have tickets for the South Africa game on June 24th, wonder if the KMNT will already have 2 L’s by the time that game rolls around. I do want to point something out that I wonder if most fans or followers of the team, have asked themselves. Take any of the KMNT teams from 1986 Mexico through the past 11 world cups, and ask yourself this. How many of these KMNT teams would have qualified for the WC if they had to be put through the CAF process, the CONMEBOL process or UEFA process, rather than their pedestrian, rudimentary, shockingly easy opponents every WC in the AFC? Like imagining some of these Korean teams playing 8x a WC cycle against Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay all the time, as if they would qualify, when? Some of the UEFA qualifying used to have 3 good teams in the same group. CAF qualifying was very hard when only 5 teams made it through, you had to win your group and then go to a 2 legged playoff to be 1 of the 5 teams. Winning your division wasn’t good enough you still had to go through a 2 legged wringer after. I think the KMNT over the years would have consistently not qualified for the WC if they had continental peers who had a much higher quality than so many of these very poor AFC teams have. Thus, by default, Korea is often making the WC fairly unqualified as a whole compared to many of their CAF/UEFA/CONMEBOL peers who have much more difficult paths. The rules are the rules, so Korea just qualifies due to their easy requirements, but it’s clearly not produced good overall results for the team in the tournament, because being good in Asia does absolutely nothing, not a god damn thing, to prepare you to play everyone else outside of the continent. By the way the KMNT have only won 2 matches since 1986 Mexico at a WC with a Korean manager at the helm. 2 wins in 21 matches, that is also a very clear indicator how crap Korea definitely is at producing managers. Korea at the WC with a Korean at the helm is the equivalent of Derby County in the Prem during 2007-08.
Let me slightly modify my comment. Being good in Asia is not currently an impediment for say Japan, to accelerate it’s growth and development in football in all stages, but I think it took a minute or two to really get the ball rolling down hill. They are the exception to the rule, nobody else in the AFC is really that good, at all.
I cannot disagree with your assessment. I, too, have been saying these players have unforced mistakes in ’em. You coupled that with relatively low football IQ, lack of top tier coaching, and add a pressurized environment like the WC, this may result in a huge disappointment for the whole nation.
Also, is anybody else concerned about SHM? He had a couple of chances in which someone of his caliber is expected to finish but he couldn’t. I realize he has naturally lost some pace with his age, but it concerns me his finishing is also showing some deterioration.
SHM is very concerning. This is a team that relies on individual brilliance to bail them out. Wonderstrikes from Son or Lee Kang In keep us competitive but Son is horribly out of form for LAFC. If SHM, LKI, or some other key player is off form or injured, we’re screwed. Even more than we already are. And I’d also agree with Glen’s assessment here. Korea has a manager problem and an FA problem above all else