http://sports.media.daum.net/soccer...d=1172&newsid=20110907221514344&p=soccerworld Thought I'd bring up this article. This article brilliantly sums up the core of the problem our team is currently facing. Ever since CKR stepped up, it has become very evident that our team is showing some problems that we had not experienced before, Showing lack of fitness during the latter stages of the second half Inefficient use of our fullbacks and hence giving lots of open space in our back No efficiency in our pressing (almost too soft), especially in the middle of the park So why are we having these problems in the first place? What is the reason? Read the article and you'll see why.
Im not sure how CKR is being faulted for fitness issues if he usually sees the team for about a week or less what..5 or 6 times during the club season? And I agree...the loss of PJS and LYP are proving to be huge factors in efficient pressing up forward. His emphasis on tikitaka with players who are proving to be less then competent in passing and 1st touch is wearing thin. And as others have pointed out, Ki is being played out position and his presence is being less felt for the NT. I didn't like what I saw with him in the last 2 internationals (Lebanon and Kuwait). He can be a much bigger factor for us but has instead gone missing more or less.
With Ki, he isn't playing out of position exactly but he has been ineffective on defense. I'm not sure why but he's not hustling anymore for the KNT, which might be because he has been playing much less defense for Celtic. He needs to run and cover up space. He is passing well but I think he's lack of effort on defense is one of the reasons why we have looked so ineffective.
This has been happening throughout the history of Korean football except in 2002. So did this. And this. And TBH, I'm not sure why this topic deserves its own thread.
Agree with most of the posters here. I don't think Cho Gwang-rae is the root cause of all our problems.
Our team had good fitness from the 80s to 2002. This is mainly how our team won games. The good fitness of the Korean teams started to show good results during the 1983 Youth World Cup in Mexico. Good results from fitness started to show in the adult World Cups during the 1994 World Cup in which our team tied against Spain and Bolivia and almost tied against Germany. I remember a big difference in the later part of each Korean games in the US World Cup. Korea didn't get exhausted and sometimes actually played harder in the later parts. In those days, the games didn't have water bottles placed on the sides. The other teams got exhausted quickly when played in the hot regions. There was a saying in Korea called '지옥훈련', which was how our team trained. The reason Korea didn't win any adult World Cup matches before 2002 was because Korea was weak in other areas especially in skill and defense. 2002 is unique in which our team had good fitness, good attack and defense, and good skills altogether. However, our team started to go downhill soon after the 2002 World Cup. And a lot of us can clearly see our team do even worse nowadays. I never saw Japan dominate Korea like that before. It's because Japan is a stronger team than the earlier Japanese teams were, but it's also because Korea is lacking more than before. Sometimes I get the feeling that they're getting closer to the 50s-70s level. Although I was born after those early games, I watched documentaries and read articles about those days. Fortunately, the game against Lebanon shows that this Korean team isn't our worst ever. There is a glint of hope from that.
As was stated before, in the 94 world cup, we ground germany in the third match to the ground. They were zombies as we started to run circles around them and almost caught up despite being down 3-0 or something.
1994 was what got me into watching soccer. They never gave up. And it was the first time I saw huge support from the Korean fans at the stadium outside of Korea, thanks to the Korean-Americans who were there. I also remember watching the Korean celebrities from Korea being there. I think the game with Germany was in Texas if I remember correctly. I've been to Texas and I can see how the weather exhausted the Germans quickly. Another thing that our team was good at was speed. Seo Jung-won and Ha Seok-ju comes to mind.
Until 2002, we blatantly lied to ourselves and everyone else that our players were generally fit. We didn't even realize this until Hiddink came to Korea and pointed out that fitness was our biggest problem. Before Hiddink brought in Raymond Verheijen, we've never even had a proper physio working with the national team.
It's pretty simple, we've always sucked except in WC2002. We'll probably never be as good as we were back then.
I don't want to sound harsh, but that WC94 squad was awful. They couldn't beat Bolivia. That should have been our first WC win. And Germany? I guess you can say they never gave up. But I mostly remember our embarrassing defence who stared in awe of Klinsmann as he put the match away in less than half an hour. 3 goals in 30 mins? Embarrassing. Germany eased off the pedal at that point and let us come back into the match that they already won. Some may remember it as a "never give up" Pyrrhic/moral victory... But I remember it as throwing away the match w/ naivete. And the only thing that still jumps to mind (that I try to block out) about Ha Suk Ju is that ridiculously stupid red card he picked up right after he scored in WC98 against Mexico. He was still so hyper, he lost his mind. Oh, not to mention our side getting battered and humiliated by Blanco, letting him hop all over the place with the ball between his feet. All this, we used to be fit and ran until the end stuff is wistful thinking. And a rosy way to look at times when we played some primitive and embarrassing stuff. The recent WC10 squad should not be underestimated imo. In many ways, it was just as strong if not better than the WC02 squad.
Winning 2-0 against an awful Greek side was nothing special. Getting raped 4-1 by Argentina was painful. We were very lucky to draw 2-2 against Nigeria. Nigeria was clearly the better team should have won that game. Finally, losing to Uruguay 2-1 with piss poor defending and shitty goalkeeping. We were very lucky to qualify into the 2nd round with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. Our performance was nothing to be proud of.
But the WC10 still made it out of the group. It doesn't matter how; all that matters is getting into the knockout stages. And it was the first time we did it overseas. That's positive progress. And if you break down the group performances of WC02 this is how it looks in a negative light: 2-0 win against a piss poor Polish side 1-1 draw against the freakin Americans 1-0 barely won against a 9 man Portuguese side. Failed to bury them and almost conceded [BTW, how the hell was Nigeria the better side in WC10? They were tactically inept and lacked any concentration. We were fine in that match and were cruising at 2-1. Even at 2-2, all they could do was take long range shots against our weak defenders. After we equalised, we had the upper hand throughout that match.]
Isn't it amazing how people are actually wondering if this is our "worst team ever" after like... what, recent three games? The embarrassment that was Korean football in the 90s has NOTHING on what we've got going on right now. Seo Jung-Won? Ha Seok-Ju?! They too have NOTHING on any of our current players.
They also wouldn't even have been at the World Cup had it not been for Iraq drawing Japan on the last day of Asian qualifying round. And here we are comparing that pitiful side to our current team that has more than half of its starting 11 playing in Europe. LOL.
A lot of people have this tendency to sympathize teams that screw themselves by blowing sitters... People mistake them as being the "better team" and the team that "deserved to win." I've seen people react this way far too often, but still don't understand just why and how teams that can't score sitters are better or deserve to win.
You can't compare the WC02 team with the WC10 squad. The WC10 squad doesn't even come close. Yes, we didn't beat the Americans and we didn't thrash a 9 man Portuguese team back in 2002. What was so significant about our squad in 2002 was our superiour stamina, speed, passion and enhanced skills compared to anything we were before. We struggled to score goals but our defence was solid, we could actually pass the ball properly and keep possession for a change. It was beautiful to watch and was the first time the KNT actually played proper football. Since then we've gone back to our old ways of ppung chookgoo which is why we're getting spanked 4-1 and 3-0 even against asian teams like China and Japan. We struggled in the 2nd half of the match against Nigeria in WC10 from what I remember. Will have to watch it again.
From what I can remember, after they equalised, they missed like 3-5 sitters in a row. Literally with JSR out of goal and the Nigerian players somehow shooting off target. Adressing the notion of "the better team", I think it's the fact that a supposed team is able to create the opportunities to miss sitters is the key point. E.g. Whilst Nigeria missed those sitters, they were controlling the ball and making those chances, etc. N.B. Not saying that Nigeria was the better team on the day, or deserved to win, etc.
My thoughts: 94. My first experience with the knt. Loved their attitude. They exceeded my very low expectations. But not very skilled. 02. We had some lucky breaks for sure on the way but it was amazing to see the same attitude complementing an hugely increased level of play. I actually got very excited about a young player... named LCS 10. We finally had so many players who could compete on the top levels of play. The highest technical levels we've had but pretty poor in organization. Greece and nigeria missed some huge opportunities against us. I think we should do better than 10 (barely making it out of group stages) but that is because we have so many more players and our young guys getting more experience. As I've stated before, I could imagine a scenario in which an EPL player might sit on the bench! (ji if nth and SHM continue to progress in more attacking midfielder roles and lcy gets healthy). But tactically and fitness wise I don't think we'll better. None of the new generation of stars we have seem to have the desire of PJS to have that extra tank. CKR is pretty underwhelming too.
Objectively, the WC10 squad was a better squad on paper than the WC02 squad. What the WC02 squad had was months of KNT training where they played like a club side. And a master tactician who geared everything towards a frenetic pressing system to compensate for the squad's lack of overall skills/talent. I promise, when you look back on our WC10 squad, you'll see just how talented of a squad we took to South Africa. It took us 8 years but we almost got the blend of veterans and young stars just right. The reason why I'm not in the doom and gloom section like many others is that we will have a WC14 squad with an experienced KSY, LCY and PJY as the main axis. It's a much better situation than going into WC06 where PJS was our sole axis/fulcrum. That loss to China in the EAFF before the world cup? How does that affect this current side? It was a C+ squad that was used before the world cup that we did fine in. As for the loss to Japan, it was a good wake up call. But we are also in a time of transition whether you like it or not b/c PJS has retired too soon. Personally, I felt that we played them too many times in a short time frame. By the last haniljeon, they knew all our weak points intimately well. And bringing an unbalanced, understrength side made us completely vulnerable to getting opened up. Again, it was a great lesson. And I don't think we play dongnae/ppung chookoo. Yes, I cringe when LYR or LJS pump the ball forward. But when KSY is our deep lying playmaker and he's pinging passes into the wings or in behind the defenders, that's not ppong chookoo. We have someone who can hit those precision long balls to the wings. Once we get near the box, we're keeping it on the floor. That's not the same as pumping it into the box route 1. As for route 1 football itself, we really should practice it in some situations more often. It's nice to have a multi-faceted attack. And in some situations, the percentages are perfect to implement it and we have the pieces to use the tactic.
The Yakubu sitter came before the penalty iirc. I thought we contained them rather well and absorbed their pressure professionally after the PK as well. Yes there were some scary moments, but that's expected when you're sitting back to defend the lead and hit out on the counterattack. We had 2 clear cut chances to score off the breaks. If we were more clinicial it would have been a less nervy finish to the match. Anyway, the Nigerians were even worse than us at finishing throughout the tournament (and in the match). And we mostly contained them so that Victor Obinna was continuously launching low percentage, long range shots that were unlikely to go in. In any case, I hope we get another African side in the next WC. The players may have great individual skills, strength and pace (as seen in the 2nd half of the Nigeria match). But our players are just better tactically. We have the African, average European, Central American and US figured out.
