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| Korean national football team manager Choi Kang-hee speaks during a media conference in Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap |
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| Lee Dong-gook |
Choi Kang-hee, the beleaguered manager of Korea's national football squad, has frequently been accused of putting reputation before ability in selecting players. Now it appears he can't get the reputations right either.
In a controversial decision Monday, Choi left Celta Vigo striker Park Chu-young off his roster for the upcoming World Cup qualifier against Qatar in favor of his long-time pupil Lee Dong-gook, who still plays for Choi's old professional club, Jeonbuk Motors.
The comparison between Park and Lee based on their production in the world stage is more lopsided than a Pyongyang election.
Although Park has been limited to three goals for his La Liga club this season, he always seems to show a flair for the moment when playing for the Taeguk Warriors. It could be argued that Park's ability to stretch the defense and move out wide when needed has never been more critical to the Koreans, who at the moment lack a true target-man up front.
On the other hand, Lee's legacy in international football has been defined by his permanently blank stare, opened mouth and a paucity of goals. While the 33-year-old's list of squandered second chances is beginning to read longer than Tolstoy, Korean football managers continue to find him irresistible, drooling over the striker's impressive scoring rate in the domestic league.
But there has always been a massive gap between the Lee who plays for his club and the one who plays for his country. And there isn't much reason to think that this disparity will suddenly disappear when it has been painfully evident for more than a decade now.
Nonetheless, Choi seems to think he can issue Lee's K League goals a passport.
"I like my combination of players in the midfield and forward lineups and I am confident they can play a good game," Choi told reporters at the Korea Football Association (KFA) headquarters in Seoul.
He offered a vague explanation on why he left Park and Kim Bo-kyung, the winger who was a big part of the Korean team that won the bronze medal in last year's London Olympics, off the roster.
"It's not that I have a particular reason (for leaving Park and Kim out). I am just forming my squad based on our opponents and the strategies I want to use," he said.
Aside of Lee, the most notable addition to Choi's roster was Son Heung-min, the rising star for Bundesliga's Hamburger SV and considered Korea's most promising football prospect since English Premiership veteran Park Ji-sung.
It could be argued that Choi's biggest flaw as a manger is his failure to inspire players like Park, Kim, Son and Ji Dong-won who had regularly excelled for his predecessor Cho Kwang-rae.
In Lee, Choi is apparently picking the player he is more familiar with out of a sense of urgency. Korea's 1-0 loss to Iran in the previous World Cup qualifier has effectively eliminated his margin for error.
Still, the different quality of play between Park and Lee is significant to a point where it's nearly impossible to argue that the latter gives Korea a better chance to win. Even should Korea clinch a ticket for the tournament in Brazil next year, Korea would need something better than a Lee-centered attack to make a meaningful run.
A lack of identity on attack is hardly Choi's only problem. In the team's loss to Iran and the 4-0 drubbing it took from Croatia in a friendly last month, Choi's aging center-back duo of Lee Jung-soo and Kwak Tae-hi seemed equally stalked by opponents and mortality.
Choi's current squad will be tested in a friendly against Syria on March 22 before the World Cup qualifier against Qatar on March 26 at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.
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