Myanmar women's football coach Bell holds soft spot for ex-team S. Korea
Myanmar head coach Colin Bell gives instruction to his players against South Korea during the teams' Group F match of the women's football tournament at the Asian Games at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan, Monday. Yonhap
Colin Bell may have stopped coaching the South Korean women's national football team two years ago, but he loves his adopted country so much that he still lives there.
And admittedly, it was "a strange feeling" to face South Korea as an opponent at the Asian Games in Japan on Monday, he says.
Bell, the English tactician now coaching Myanmar, lost to his former team 5-0 on Monday to begin the Asian Games at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, some 140 kilometers west of the main host city of Nagoya.
Bell coached the Taegeuk Ladies from 2019 to 2024 and took over Myanmar last month.
Bell's new team proved to be no match against his former side Monday night, and he conceded defeat to a superior side.
"All I could ask for my players after a couple of weeks (of) training was that they give everything they have and they did. They gave everything they have," Bell said. "But our problem was that what they have is not enough to match this quality that we were playing against. And I know the players very, very well from South Korea. It was basically my team on one side in red and my new team in white."
Bell says he still texts regularly with some of the South Korean players.
"I see the girls. I text with them. They are fantastic girls," he said. "They know how I am. They know that I have a lot of affection for them for the rest of my life and for the rest of their lives and I expected them to be motivated."
Bell said his successor, Shin Sang-woo, has been able to "take over the team that was set."
"He just had his own little touch, whatever that is, I don't know. But it was a readymade team to take on and that's a good position to be in," Bell said. "Sometimes, well, it is a law of nature. You reap what you sow but sometimes, when you sow things, you don't actually reap them. I sowed five years in that team and somebody else is able to reap them now."
Bell said the modest goal for Myanmar is to win at least one match at the Asian Games, with the mighty North Korea and Bangladesh up next.
North Korea clobbered Bangladesh 10-0 Monday.
"We know that we are up against two really tough teams. Both teams have enough quality to pounce on mistakes," Bell said. "Sometimes in life, you have to get maybe slap in the face and that is what we received this evening, just to realize where we are at."
Bell said he is looking forward to seeing how Myanmar will grow from here and on.
"I am convinced that in six to 12 months, the team will have a totally different face," he said. "We will try and get a friendly next year with South Korea before they go to the World Cup and then we can see how far we are."