One big omission I forgot about was that the tean didn't have Lee Gwang-Hyuk. He would've done a greatee job at connecting the defense and offense. While losing to Japan sucks I don't really take too much mind of playing them anymore. We already know we have players of equal if not better quality. We just didn't put the pieces together with this cycle. Unfortunately for these guys also the previous cycle will likely be the core of the Rio 16 team. I predict LGJ will not pick many from this one. Not unless they are tearing it up at club level. This includes Baek (Paik).
At least we qualified for the U-17 WC, so there's at least something to look forward to next year as far as youths are concerned. Consider it trading spots I guess; we usually don't qualify for U-17 WC consistently but managed to do so this time, while U-2o's missed out for first time in a long time... ironically with both being decided against the same opponent; Japan. We can call it even I guess. Such an up and down year for Korean NT's thus far. The disappointment of the World Cup, success of the U-16's/excitement of up and coming LSW but ultimately falling just short of snatching the title, finally breaking the duck in winning the Asian Games title, encouraging performances from the senior team in post WC friendlies, and now this U-19's disappointment. (and more ups and downs if we go into the Women's team's performances at various levels) But hey, there's football for ya.
even though this team does not have the chance to make the WC. their is a heap of talents and our players have a bright future in front of them. Also the KFA knows not to hire that crappy coach
N.Korea beat Iraq today I think this means that they finish over Iraq as 2nd place in the group because I believe the tiebreak this tournament uses is head-to-head? That means it'll be Japan vs. N.Korea, which is always interesting.
Correct, very interesting indeed. Shame Australia is in the same situation as Korea with tactically inept coaches
Well listening to the fans, every team has an inept coach and every team would have made it to the next round if it wasn't for him. I don't know what to make of it ...
I think from our perspective it has to do with both the perceived ineptitude of some of the Korean coaches, and our understanding of the cultural/systemic issues that have contributed to past problems, i.e. corruption, etc. There's a lot of arrogance and ambivalence in the way the KFA top brass, including the coaches, have operated in the past. Pile on top of that traditional Korean tenets of Confucian deference, etc. and you have this weird perfect storm where ineptitude, and not talent, can trickle to some of the most important positions. At least that's my perspective. I could also be completely wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Think your elimination has a lot to do with team not really gelling, could be the coach or could simply be the individuals, and China being insanely lucky (it sounds like I'm piling on China but not at all, they were just not very good).
The team certainly didn't gel well. Kim Shin for example actually didn't even train with the team pre-tournament and only joined up with the team at Myanmar... and he looked totally out of touch teamwork wise for both China and Japan match. Not sure that it was a wise idea to introduce him as a sub, over someone like Shim Jae-Hyuk who looked more in-form from the Vietnam and China matches. Foreign based guys like Kim YG (Almeria) and Kim SJ (Orange County or something, was it?) also didn't really perform up to par either and Baek was given very little field time despite all the pre-tournament hype (not only from the public but also from the coach himself), so perhaps the foreign components failing to gel in time may have had something to do with it... at least for the offensive side of things. For our coach to dismiss it as our players' overconfidence though, is what baffles me. And the fact that the head coach undertook heavy fitness training right before the tournament in which we knew well in advance would be crazy in scheduling (3 matches in 5 days) as well as during the tournament, while not rotating the core guys in midfield and defence (not even one of them) was definitely a huge mistake on his part IMO, and literal mismanagement of the team. Perhaps he had his training cycle planned so that they peak by the knockout rounds, but we all knew this was a group of death coming in so if that was his intention and took it for granted, that was a critical mistake and actually his overconfidence that paid for it. Our recipe in style of play in dealing with Japan at any level has never been a secret, so I just couldn't believe how tired and immobile they looked in the game and how loosely they were in defending against the Japanese players throughout the game, leaving them with so much room. But of course the two shots by Minamino were both brilliant, and your left winger in particular totally destroyed our right flank with his speed and technique, so no disrespect to their skill level either... whatever our situation was, the fact in the end was that we were throughly outplayed in the game and lost. Just that I think we can still legitimately criticize what was a clear mismanagement of the team, is all. And also because I hate it when a coach uses his players as his main excuse after a team's failure (even HMB had the decency to not do that on his way out). China may have been lucky but I personally felt that their defence were quite solid (against us anyway; did not watch the Vietnam match and only portions of the Japan match), particularly their GK, and got the results they needed to, so hats off to them as well.
Well, in Australia's case, Paul Okon had no experience coaching a youth national side before he got this job. We needed someone who was tactically astute, not someone who had no tactics whatsoever. The guy might have been a great player, but as a coach he is shit. FFA need to get it through their thick heads that hiring an inexperienced coach isn't going to work at this level.
How come I do not remember reading something about this last year? there was no news about this and all I remember is that there was a long period of not knowing who our U-18 coach was and then suddenly Kim Sang-ho got the job right before the qualifiers. Who this "A" coach was I wonder and what happened http://sports.media.daum.net/sports/soccer/newsview?newsId=20141015072308455
If it really was Kim Byung-soo then it pisses me off even more. Whatever he would have done, it wouldnt havent been any worse than what this idiot has done. And fck Choi Soon-ho and his line.
But I'm not sure it would have been Kim Byung-soo because I dont know of any past "controversies" that this man has made. And during that time last year, he was busy with Yeungnam Uni than anything else (+ he probably only wants to coach Pohang IMO). But who ever it was, it wouldnt havent been any worse than what this idiot has done. And fck Choi Soon-ho and his line
It boggles my mind the fact that Choi Soon-Ho whom was amongst those retards that fcuked things up for our NT is now our FA's VP, and it was too good to be true to even think that Hwangbo Kwan would leave the KFA completely after turning in his resignation as the Technical Director, but nope he's still there now as the KNT's Support Manager smh.
So the Norks Advance on penalties and Japan misses out again anyway... What a year it's been for the Norks at younger age levels... It'll be really weird at the U-20 WC... we're going to be seeing nations like N.Korea, Myanmar, Qatar/China, Thailand/Uzbek etc. I mean no offence to any of those teams (especially Uzbeks who have done pretty consistently at youth levels anyway), they deserve to be where they are obviously, but it's just kinda unusual... kind of like all those unusual representations at once from CAF at the 2006 WC...
it speaks more to the top teams underachieving. we have seen the Norks get to the WC plenty of times recently only to perform badly. in the long run it benefits the region as the smaller nations football wise get exposure to the international level. but in the short term its bad cause they will likely not even get to the next round which is sad given only 8 teams dont advance.
Pretty good stuff from Bukhan this year AFC U-14 - Finalists (lost to Iraq) AFC U-16 - Winners AFC U-19 - Semi-finalists (and still going) Asian Games - Silver medalists For us, it really was this U-19 team failing that really killed our good momentum in the youth competitions. (Fck you Kim Sang-ho). AFC U-14 - Semi-finalists (lost to Bukhan) Youth Olympics U-15 - Silver-medalists (lost to Peru) AFC U-16 - Finalists (lost to Bukhan) AFC U-19 - FAIL Asian Games - Gold-medalists
But the difference between North and South Korea is that you guys are doing well at senior level. Qualified to every World Cup since 1986, showing good performances time after time at the Asian Cup. But North Korea is nowhere to be seen at senior level. That is very suspicious