Korea Either Wins or Packs
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
With its Asian Cup dreams now hanging by a thread, South Korea heads into tonight's final group match needing a big win over surging co-hosts Indonesia, and a deafening home crowd of 90,000 certainly doesn't help.
The Koreans declared themselves as tournament favorites arriving in Jakarta but a 1-1 draw against Saudi Arabia in the opener and an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to underdogs Bahrain have left the Taeguek Warriors with bruised egos, shattered confidence and sore bodies.
Since its superb World Cup run in 2002, it's hard to deny that Korean football has regressed considerably in depth of talent, and so far, national team manager Pim Verbeek seems to have failed to make the tactical adjustments to coax the squad into playing better than the sum of its parts.
The Dutchman, once hailed as a national hero as a coach for Guus Hiddink, now finds himself under fire, with some local newspapers speculating that the always-petulant Korean Football Association (KFA) will soon come calling for his head.
And it looks like some of his best players have already started tuning him out. Middlesbrough forward Lee Dong-gook, who started in the Bahrain match, claimed to the media that the team was out-coached on the pitch and complained about the lack of touches.
Nonetheless, Verbeek is confidence of his team's chances of advancing to the knockout stage, although going through Indonesia was clearly not the way he wanted to do it.
"I am expecting a great game. Clearing the home team by two goals in front of a crowd of 90,000 is a big challenge to both the players and coaches,'' said Verbeek in a news conference in Jakarta Tuesday.
He also added that there will be no big changes in strategy from the previous two games, with the wide midfielders joining the lone striker on the attack when the team has the ball.
Indonesia presents an ultimate test to Verbeek's optimism. At least on paper, the co-hosts represent the least talented bunch of the four in Group D.
However, their 2-1 win over Bahrain in the opener and impressive performance in the 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia, which they gave up the heart-breaker in stoppage time, clearly shows the fitness and determination of the Indonesian players, as well as how far their frantic, foot-stomping home crowd of 90,000 could carry them.
Indonesia is expected to adopt a similar strategy the Saudis and Bahrain employed against Korea __ pounding the ball to the flanks and taking advantage of the slow Korean defenders.
Fleet-footed Saudi forward Malek Maaz tortured the Korean defense throughout the game before drawing the game-tying penalty in the second-half on an ill-advised foul by right-back Oh Beom-seok.
The Chunnam Dragons duo of Kim Jin-kyu and Kang Min-soo __ who Verbeek trusts as central defenders __ failed to recover for their defensive miscues that led to the two goals against Bahrain.
Indonesia seems to have the personnel to attack Korea in the same way. Pint-sized forward Bambang Pamungkas could give Korean defenders nightmares with his pace and trickery, while skipper Ponaryo Astaman gives the team a creative playmaker in the midfield.
Korea could take comfort in the fact that the Indonesians will be without holding midfielder Eka Ramdani due to accumulated bookings. Attacker Elie Aiboy, who scored the equalizer against Saudi Arabia, could also miss the match as he is nursing a knee injury.
Stemming the Indonesian attack is one thing, scoring against them is another. Coping with the loss of Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung and Suwon Samsung's Kim Nam-il, Verbeek has packed the midfield with five players for the effectiveness at keeping position.
However, with the midfielders forced to play deep most of the time to cover for defensive jitters, and forwards Lee and Cho Jae-jin struggling in their roles as lone striker, creating enough goal-scoring chances has become a problem for the Koreans.
Verbeek hopes to clear Indonesia by at least two goals, which would give them insurance should Bahrain beat Saudi Arabia in their group stage finale, and he has to be wondering where the offense will come from.
The Dutch coach is likely to start Cho as a lone striker, who does a better job than Lee in winning the ball in air and holding it up until the support arrives, with the Middlesbrough forward, the better finisher of the two, readied as a second-half substitute.
Ulsan Hyundai midfielder Lee Chun-soo has clearly been Korea's best player so far with his relentless attack on the right flank, and Verbeek could only hope that his set-piece prowess results in a goal this time, especially with his strikers looking out of touch.
Kim Do-hyeon, who scored the goal against Bahrain but otherwise had an ineffective game, is penciled as the offensive point man in the center midfield, while Seongnam Ilhwa teammate Kim Sang-shik hopes to replace the role of Suwon's Kim as the deep-lying playmaker.
Song Chong-kuk and Kim Dong-jin, defensive backs who were blamed largely for the loss to Bahrain, are not expected to get the call against Indonesia, as their games could be more fitted to a 4-4-2 style which requires full-backs to be more involved in the offense.
This means that Oh and Kim Chi-kyu, defenders with limited attacking skills, will man the flanks against Indonesia, and Verbeek expects a better performance by the duo than from the Saudi match.
The hostile home crowd at Jakarta's sweltering Gelora Bung Karno Stadium is not only a concern for Verbeek's boys. The Korean embassy in Jakarta has warned Korean football fans not to wander outside their designated area in the stadium and recommended them not to wear the Korean football team's uniform or red shirts.