How Korea can win World Cup
By Vee Chansa-Ngavej
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South Korea's youth team reaching the 2019 U-20 World Cup final was a noteworthy and commendable achievement. The players and coaching staff deserve all the praise that comes their way.
Nevertheless, Korea's notorious lack of edge and finishing touches was on display yet again in the final match against Ukraine, who had taller, faster, and more skillful players. Painful as it may be, the better team clearly won.
Unfortunately, the lasting image of the final match will be Ukraine's third goal, where midfielder Heorhiy Tsitaishvili made a penetrating run from the center circle, skillfully dribbling past Korean defenders into the penalty box before sharply shooting to beat the goalkeeper.
It should not go unnoticed that the two defeats South Korea suffered in this tournament were both against European opposition, the other being a 1-0 loss against Portugal in the opening match. At the youth level, the teams are more evenly balanced. This is why teams like Ghana (2009), Serbia (2015) and Ukraine have won the competition, while Venezuela, a country known for its baseball rather than football, reached the final two years ago when the tournament was held in Korea.
When it comes to the World Cup itself, however, it is a different story. Only eight nations have monopolized the prestigious trophy, the usual suspects from Europe (Germany, Italy, France, Spain, England) and South America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay). Why is this so? The answer lies in the players' development in the European football leagues, from youth up to the senior level.
Teams that have won the World Cup all have one thing in common: most, if not all, of their national team players ply their trade in top leagues across Europe. For this is where they can compete against the world's elite players, hone their skills and develop tactical understanding under a coaching and conditioning system that boost them to become world-class athletes.
On the South Korean national team, only one such elite player exists, its captain Son Heung-min, who has played at the top level in both Germany and England. However, apart from a few exceptions, all the other national team players play professionally in East Asia.
If this trend continues, it will be difficult to see the national team lifting the World Cup trophy in the near future. Although South Korea made a remarkable run to the semifinals on its home soil in the 2002 World Cup, it has since managed to break out of the group stage just once, in 2010.
Despite reaching the finals of the U-20 World Cup, Korea's youth players must not rest on their laurels. They must find ways to implant themselves in Europe at the earliest possible age, not unlike captain Son and budding teenage star Lee Kang-in, who plays for Valencia in Spain.
Through such immersion, Korea can develop into an elite footballing power, and it would be possible to envision South Korea being the first Asian team to reach a World Cup final by 2030. Once they get there, why not beat Brazil and win the whole thing? Doing so would truly make South Korea the footballing pride of Asia.
Vee Chansa-Ngavej (veechansa@hotmail.com) is an independent writer from Thailand.