Korea finding road to Russia far from smooth

By John Duerden

On the face of it, four points from the first two games of the final round of qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup is a pretty good return. Should Korea continue with an average of two points per game, the Taeguk Warriors are almost certain to be heading to their ninth successive World Cup.

Yet the 3-2 win over China on September 1 and the goalless tie with Syria five days later have people a little worried. Is this just a case of the team starting slowly but still picking up points before the performances improve? Or is this a team that is going to struggle and leave fans feeling tense all the way through?

At the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, Korea started slowly. The first two performances against Oman and Kuwait were poor but the results were satisfactory. As the tournament progressed, the team started to find some rhythm and was a little unlucky not to be taking the trophy home.

A trophy is the ideal but it is far from certain. China and Syria are the two weakest teams in Group A, on paper at least. There are tougher games ahead against Qatar, Iran and Uzbekistan. The Taeguk Warriors need to finish in the top two of the six-team group to qualify automatically for the 2018 World Cup.

Korea definitely needs improvement. The game against China was OK for the first 70 minutes. The team wasn’t playing very smoothly. Then again, it was the first time the team had played together since June and they had only three days’ training. If the 3-0 score after 70 minutes had lasted until the end, all would have been well, any rustiness forgotten in the glow of a comfortable win.

But the two Chinese goals in quick succession had the Korean team in full panic mode. Syria was worse. Playing in Malaysia due to security issues in the Middle East, the game was never going to be as easy as some sections of the media predicted.

There were a few chances that came and went but offensively, Korea offered little. Almost all the attacks came down the wings, with little penetrative passing and movement in the middle. It wasn’t difficult to defend against.

Ki Sung-yeung, the team’s captain and, just 18 months ago, one of the best midfielders in the English Premier League, was in the worst form of his life.

Syria’s time-wasting tactics were extreme and designed to frustrate and prevent the East Asians finding any rhythm. As Coach Uli Stielike admitted after the game, the only way to stop the goalkeeper falling down injured after every save is to score first.

Stielike is under some pressure now, perhaps for the first time since arriving two years ago. He has a habit of changing the line-up from game to game without doing much to change the way the team plays.

The German has also been accused of not calling up enough K-League players, and it is not hard to imagine that a completely domestic-based team would have performed better against Syria. Also not hard to imagine is that a better team than Syria would have beaten Korea.

Tactics can always be debated but there can be no excuses for a coach to call up just 20 players for the two games when 23 were allowed. To intentionally take fewer players than allowed for such important matches is mystifying and for this, the coach deserves the criticism that has come his way from the Seoul media.

Qatar, a stronger team than China and Syria, visits Suwon on October 6. Korea needs to become stronger, too.