Following Korean football is bad for your mental health. Despite the talent on our squad, despite the progress we’ve made, in typical Korean fashion we’ve messed it up yet again. A squad like this CANNOT, absolutely cannot, lose to South Africa of all teams. Yet we cannot complain; the better team won. That’s how shambolic of a state we are in right now. We will not even discuss the RO32 possibilities and whatnot because the way we play despite having a squad like this, despite such a lucky draw and tournament situation, we do not deserve to be at the World Cup, period. We deserve to get knocked out and repent. Someone tell me with a straight face that this wasn’t the single worst KNT game in at least the past two decades, if not longer. Worse than Algeria 2014. Every humiliation, Hong Myung Bo is there. I was REALLY willing to give him the benefit of the doubt this time around; I really hoped he wouldn’t go down as one of our worst managers in history. Yet again, we are disappointed.
For the first time since following the KNT super closely, I straight up feel ashamed to be Korean. Have we ever seen a KNT side that almost looked like they didn’t want to win? And straight up gave up? One of the first questions a reporter asked Hong was whether the players had food poisoning or some other illness. We REALLY did not look like ourselves, yes, and there were some questionable decisions from Hong Myung Bo, yes, but even the players themselves (I will absolve Jens, Lee Gi Hyeok, and Lee Han Beom though for at least trying) looked sluggish, apathetic, and out of form. Was it the humidity and heat? Was it the uncharacteristically short grass leading to all those pass misses and errors? Are we openly revolting against HMB and the toxicity of the KFA in the past years? Whatever it was, this is a straight up embarrassment on our end, something that will trigger the inevitable “tear it all down and rebuild” discussions we’ve been doing for 12 years straight here on the Tavern.
To be continued after we here at the Tavern cool off from this fiasco…
Sigh man… sigh
Nearly a week later and my anger hasn’t subsided man… sigh
The only hope I have is the KFA President resigns after the WC. Still…hurts
KFA President Chung Mong Gyu actually resigned mid tournament, saying he doesn’t want to remembered for ruining Korean football.. he most certainly will now though. Also, getting rid of CMG is only the tip of the iceberg, the entire FA is rotten
Embarrassing. This is what happens when you become arrogant, think you’re better than your opponent and play for a tie. HMB had no idea what to do and just sat on the bench, speechless, for the last 30 min. We don’t deserve to be in the WC. Pack it up now and go home.
I don’t think it’s even arrogance I think HMB is just afraid to lose. So he plays maddeningly conservatively and doesn’t bother to tell the team to attack. He LITERALLY instructed the players to hold their positions and not move too much in case the space a player vacates gets attacked. How stupid is he??
All the players and manager deserves all the hate and toxicity. I hope Candy gets thrown at them at the airport.
I disagree with you on this one, the players not so much. You can only do so much as a footballer when there is literally zero direction coming from the manager. The hate towards the players themselves is NOT deserved imo
There seemed to be a lack of effort or hustle when the ball was turned over. There was a lack of conviction when we did have the ball in midfield or final 3rd. Everyone in the Korean bar where I was watching were all expressing similar opinions. Mokoena was slicing the Koreans up. It just takes one player to say, “Not ME!”. It seemed like they collectively decided that they were going to let the South Africans counter and go straight down broadway. I’m not saying to play dirty, but one hard tackle and yellow card from Korea might have woke up the sleepwalking players. Where was the leadership from Kim Min Jae or Son, as they should have to been yelling at their teammates. From where I was watching it felt like they expected the W to be handed to them and were shellshocked when South Africa didn’t get the memo.
I don’t think it’s that they expected to be handed a win. My suspicion is that HMB just straight up lost the locker room with his benching of SHM and the stupid “fight” and “I’ll be evaluating you” speech. Maybe we just wanted to rebel against him, idk. And maybe there was indeed a component of South Africa playing more tactically disciplined than expected, leading us to not have a proper way of cracking them.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing
8 players behind their cover shadow, CBs staying back, and LKI desperately looking to make anything happen while his teammates coward behind their marker as an excuse to not have to play the ball
Son unfortunately completely impactless again, and Hwang Hee Chan has been a passenger. 4 years ago these two would’ve managed to bail us out of games we shouldn’t be in, but yesterday… and for the whole group, son gets the ball, and hesitates instead of doing a step over and curling a ball to the far post from 30 yards out.
Positives were Jens who deserved a start. In the 2nd half he was doing pretty well for himself.
Why the fuck did KMJ get pulled? And why was HMB sitting in the box aura farming while our team is down 1-0 at 90 minutes?
The KFA should be forced to repay every fan who flew to Mexico for this
The part that hurts the most is that this isn’t the 2018 squad, on paper a fit KMJ and LKI sweeps that entire team talent wise, but HMB manages to kill any ambition in our team again.
The dying minutes of the Mexico match and the South Africa match showed that if we push forward and take risks we can actually make something happen. The players HAVE the ability..
I died laughing in agreement…. Absolutely KFA should re-pay every fan who flew to Mexico for this clown show.
I want the KFA 꼰대s to personally be forced to compensate the fans
This game was so painful to watch.
Our team is actually above average and yet we looked like the YMCA club for over 65 y/o men.
What in the name of Kim Il Sung is going on.
HMB as a manager, I would rather let Helen Keller drive my car.
Zero strategy, zero creativity.
We need to hire a completely new manager and team.
Why not hire a coach from Brazil or Argentina?
because the KFA 꼰대s are fucking r******d
It pains me to say this but this ROKNT is the most uninspiring team of this WC and boring and frustrating to watch. SLOW and Lack of Quality!! I honestly think I can count in one hand how many times during this whole tournament when we actually penetrated and attacked in the opposition side with their defense not quite in proper formation, and missing out on most opportune times to score. Unless fans and supporters start holding this NT accountable going forward without making excuses and showing lazy tolerance for this low standards, KNT will never ever reach the next level.
Looks like they won’t even qualify from third place standings. Probably for the better to save from further humiliation.
It’s the coach not the players. The coach sets the overall strategy, culture, builds the team over several years, recruits and develops new young players. Wonder why Korea failed to advance in 2014 under HMB when in the world cups before and after him they did so? Wonderwhy so many people were against HMBs appointment yet the KFA ignored them? This is the same KFA that declined to renew Bentos contract despite him beating both Portugal and Germany and advancing in he WC then go on to hire Klinsmen
I am not Korean but I have been following Asian football and I feel that it is not much to do with the coach but mainly with the players. In this World Cup have seen good coaches who have not been able to make their teams through to the next round. And I feel that some of the korean key players example son , Lee kang in did not deliver. I read the previous comments and many have said that bento was great i agree but their opponents were weak during that tournament and if Korea even made it to the next round of 16 where they lost miserably against Brazil.
They played Portugal, Ghana and Uruguay in the 2022 World Cup. How are those teams weaker than the ones they played this time?
Yeah not sure if anything said here is credible at all
South Africa’s historical qualification to knockout stage and now Canada qualifying to top 16.
It seems South Korea’s incompetence is the gift that keeps giving!
made worse by the fact that Jesse Marsch was initially supposed to be OUR manager before the FA abruptly said nah we don’t know who that is we’re going for HMB
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