Korea needs new coach to be relevant in Brazil
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Under Choi Kang-hee, Korea has yet to resemble a regional football powerhouse looking for its eighth consecutive World Cup appearance. / Yonhap
By Kim Tong-hyung
Choi Kang-hee has entirely wasted his chance to deliver so now it’s time for him to go.
Explaining why a grown man has become incapable of doing what he is paid for is not an easy or pleasant task. Especially if the person concerned is stuck in the increasingly thankless job of being Korea’s senior national football coach, a position where unrealistic expectations and short attention spans can quickly dim the brightest of talents.
So if Korea Football Association (KFA) Chairman Chung Mong-gyu does opt for a coaching change, a decision that would be his and his alone, there might be a conspicuous absence of reporters at the subsequent news conference asking why Choi was dismissed because all everyone needs to know has been apparent for some time.
It was particularly present in the team’s weary and unimaginative performance for much of the World Cup qualifying campaign, with the players looking dejected and absent of ideas and confined to a style of play ill-suited for their skill sets which hindered their creativity.
Likable but limited as a strategist, Choi hasn’t been able to inspire players such as Son Heung-min, the 21-year-old Hamburg striker triggering a bidding war among top European clubs, Koo Ja-cheol and Ji Dong-won, who excelled regularly for his predecessor Cho Kwang-rae.
Choi’s insistence on employing his aging Jeonguk Motors pupil, Lee Dong-gook, as the centerpiece of his offense runs against all boundaries of sanity. The languid forward has never played with conviction on the bigger stages of international football and he isn’t likely to start doing so at the age of 34.
It’s normally difficult to argue that a coaching change would benefit a team just a year ahead of the planet’s biggest sporting tournament. But Korea has nothing resembling brains, heart or courage. It could be only a matter of time before players, overdosed with under-coaching, succumb to their frustration and start tuning Choi out.
If the team needs to go in a different direction, it would be in its best interests to make the changes quickly. Despite Choi’s sorry stretch of brain-dead football, Korea remains in a safe position to qualify for the World Cup finals in Brazil next year, so Chung should feel more comfortable about wielding the ax.
With the visually frustrated Hyundai scion watching from the stands, Choi’s men sweated out a 1-1 draw against the lowly hosts Lebanon early Wednesday (KST), a listless performance the ever-decorous vernacular media described as the near-tragedy of Beirut.
After the match, Choi sounded like a man who knew the end was near.
``We prepared for a week to prevent this kind of a result and we apparently failed. Any loss or poor performance on the pitch is attributable to the manager and so is this one. The players did their best. The result was regrettable,’’ Choi told Korean reporters.
``We should approach our next match against Uzbekistan like it’s the championship game of the real World Cup. The coaching staff and players will have to work together to analyze what went wrong against Lebanon and improve our play on the pitch.’’
At Sports City Stadium, the hosts took the lead in the 12th minute when forward Hassan Maatook shortened a corner kick and drilled a right-footer at the edge of the box that caught Korean defenders by surprise.
The Koreans counter attacked with enthusiasm and limited purpose, failing to find openings in the deep-lying Lebanese defense and frequently wasting opportunities with long, diagonal punts that sailed away like loose helium balloons.
Lee Chung-yong nearly equalized in the 23rd minute, but his shot ricocheted off the right post. Kim Bo-kyung deftly picked out Lee Dong-gook inside the box just before the first-half whistle, but Lee knocked the ball over the crossbar.
The Koreans showed more urgency in the second half, with Son and towering striker Kim Shin-wook brought from the bench to give the attack more bite. Lee Dong-gook missed another opportunity in the 80th minute, when he latched on to a rebound and slapped it with his left foot, only to hit the post.
The Koreans seemed destined for a stunning loss against the heavy underdogs until Kim Chi-woo converted on a set piece during the dying seconds of the match, which kept Korea’s World Cup hopes alive.
The draw moved Korea to the top of Group A with 11 points after six games. Uzbekistan also has 11 points after the same number of games, but Korea holds the edge in goal difference. Iran, which defeated Qatar 1-0 in an earlier match Tuesday, has 10 points. Qatar has seven points and Lebanon has five at the bottom of the group.
The top two teams from the group will earn berths to next year’s World Cup finals, while the third-place team will be thrown in a do-or-die playoff. Korea will play its last two qualifiers at home ― against Uzbekistan next Tuesday and Iran on June 18.