Pre-match: Korea vs Spain 2016/06/01 Discussion + Prediction

Realistically, the outcome of us losing is very high (Almost a guaranteed), but knowing that Stielike has a good understanding of Spanish football, especially having played for one of the most prestige team in La Liga (Real Madrid), it will be quite interesting to see how much of it is up to date and what he will be instilling on our team come next week Wednesday since it will be his first true test against a strong opposition.

Hopefully, he has been following the Spanish NT having watched tapes of their latest matches, but more so and most importantly, I hope he's watched Bob Bradley's USMNT 2-0 win over Spain at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, because that was pretty much the opening point of a counter Tiki-taka against the Spanish NT. If he hasn't then he should do it immediately because that was a clear cut example of Bob Bradley deploying a brilliant strategy that literally enforced the Spanish players out of possession whilst collapsing their defense to disorganization, also creating spaces and chances of a counter-attacking opportunity.

But, that shouldn't be the only example, he should also follow it up with the 2010 FIFA World Cup Switzerland vs Spain match, 2014 FIFA World Cup Netherlands vs Spain and Chile vs Spain matches. Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan + Real Madrid, or Ancelotti's Real Madrid matches vs Barcelona are also good examples of a counter Tiki-taka. He should also take a look at our 2010 friendly match vs Spain too and take some notes on Huh Jung-moo's tactics/strategy because we've not only managed to create lot's of chances and plays, but we also managed to keep it close before eventually losing by only a goal.

Of course given the current state that our NT is in, it is difficult to picture our players carrying and executing even half of those tasks, but not much of Del Bosque's tactics will change nor will Tiki-taka ever be dropped from the system, so our players shouldn't be too hesitant or scared but actually take this match with a more stronger mindset to create lot's of plays and opportunities.

I am not asking our team to win nor am I hoping for one, a nil-nil draw will be the most decent result we can get (Or should I say satisfying?), but the only thing I am asking for is that we actually play decently, perhaps it may sound a tad too much to some folks, but at least not at the level we were playing while under Choi Kang-hee.

Now, I know some if not most of you folks will be questioning "Who cares? we'll probably lose in an embarrassing fashion anyway", but remember this is our first true test of the year under Stielike, against a strong team(Granted that we haven't faced strong teams in a while.). And, with the given fact that we are in the reforming/rebuilding/tune up phase under our new manager, this will be the next stepping stone as we continue to evaluate on what needs to be done next or what needs to be fixed from here on out as we head on towards the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

TL;DR: We hardly ever start Pre-match threads and it's been a long while since, so I decided to start one for the kicks so everyone is free to put in their analysis or 2 cents(And predictions) of this match for the time being until I start the match day thread in roughly 1-2 days time prior to kickoff, so please keep things civil, thanks.

 

Just for shits and giggles, here are the clips:

 

Yes, losing can be a valuable experience for us whether it'd be 0-1 or 0-2 or even 1-2, but even then we cannot afford to concede any more goals. As I've said before that a draw would probably be the most decent yet justifiable result, however the main importance is that our players actually go out there and perform decently, because in the end we have to be able to uphold our ground and be able to play decently against strong teams, and start picking up pace once we've found that steady rhythm.