Korea 7-0 Singapore: Kim Do Hoon’s Feel Good Win, Debut Goals for Bae Jun Ho and Joo Min Kyu

We’re back from hiatus – my apologies for not posting since March, we missed a lot going on in the Korean football world since then but we’ll get to everything in the coming weeks – and we kick off with one of the most refreshing KNT games in recent memory.

The callup list was already quite exciting with numerous new faces including Hwang Jae Won and Choi Jun (very in form RBs in the K League and as you all know I’ve been clamoring for Hwang Jae Won to start for the KNT for a while now), Bae Jun Ho (Stoke City’s player of the year and our next big talent since Lee Kang In), and Joo Min Kyu + Oh Se Hun (very in form FW for the newly promoted J League table topper Machida Zelvia).

The starting XI was a bit conservative with a classic midfield trio of Jung Woo Young Sr, Hwang In Beom, and Lee Jae Sung, and a classic front three of Son Heung Min, Joo Min Kyu, and Lee Kang In. At the start the CB pair was shaky and the man marking on Jung Woo Young Sr. left us with very poor build up play, but the first half still yielded a beautiful goal from Lee Kang In making the rounds on social media and a debut goal from Joo Min Kyu – a very well deserved KNT goal for the multi season K League top scorer who kept unfairly not getting called up to the national team.

But in the second half, I don’t know what Kim Do Hoon said in the locker room but our play came alive

Son Heung Min scored two classic Son Heung Min goals, Lee Kang In scored a double, Joo Min Kyu got 4 assists, then our next big thing Bae Jun Ho (who’s been killing it in his first ever season in Europe – I didn’t get to write about him much but he’s probably had one of the most successful seasons out of all our KPAs) scored his debut, before Hwang Hee Chan wrapped up the 7-0.

There’s no question that interim manager Kim Do Hoon is a better manager than Hwang Sun Hong who has repeatedly disappointed over and over again – I haven’t written about our absolutely humiliating failure to qualify for the Olympics yet (truly disgraceful…) – and now there are even calls on the internet for Kim Do Hoon to stay as typical KFA incompetence does not portend a good managerial appointment for us.

And yes, the mindnumbing stupidity and incompetence of the KFA in the last few months – from the axing of Herve Renard just because he couldn’t make a given appointment day because of personal reasons (a wedding iirc) and asked to reschedule, to the announcement of being in talks with Jesse Marsch only to be followed by his appointment to Canada and his denying of the rumors just a few days later, to the absolute disrespect towards Senol Gunes – will be covered in its own post.

Perhaps it’s a bit soon to call for Kim Do Hoon to be our permanent manager, but I absolutely agree with where the netizens are coming from. I would love more than anything to avoid another Stielike or Klinsmann situation as well.

Full match recap to follow later in the day (been up since 5 AM and it did not disappoint) but for now, enjoy all 7 goals on the KFA’s Instagram page.