More questions than answers for misfiring Korea

Austrian midfielder Xaver Schlager, front left, and South Korean midfielder Lee Kang-in, right, vie for the ball during a friendly football match between Austria and South Korea in Vienna, Tuesday. AFP-Yonhap

With just over two months until South Korea kicks off its 2026 World Cup campaign against Denmark, there are still many questions surrounding the team, even after its trip to Europe.

On Saturday, the Taegeuk Warriors lost 4-0 to the Ivory Coast, a truly terrible result at this stage of preparation, followed by a trip to Austria on Tuesday. The performance in Vienna was better, but that is not saying much, and it ended 0-0.

It should be said — and it has been said — that these were only friendlies. Too much can be read into warm-up games, but there are worrying reminders of 2014, when coach Hong Myung-bo was also in charge going into the World Cup.

In the five games before the big kick-off in Brazil that year, Korea failed to score in four and suffered two 4-0 defeats. At the time, the optimistic among us hoped that it would all come good. It didn’t, and the team left South America with three poor performances and a single point from three games. The sight of the players standing at Incheon International Airport being showered with "yeot," or taffy, by waiting fans — a symbolic display of displeasure toward the team — will never be forgotten.

Against Ivory Coast, a team that has not qualified for the World Cup, Korea played a three-man defense — even though none of the defenders actually play that system for their clubs —and it did not go well.

In Vienna, the team’s two attacking stars, Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in, both started, but while it helped, there wasn’t enough of a scoring threat. Once more, it seemed as if the coach was looking to the big names of Son, Lee and Kim Min-jae in defense to make a difference. Lee’s passing ability looked like it could, but overall, it wasn’t enough.

Son is 33, and it is natural that he is not going to be the same explosive player as before, but with current team Los Angeles FC in the United States, he hasn’t been at his best. "I don't think I've suffered any dip in my performance," he said. "When the time comes for me to leave the national team, then I will do it on my own. If I can no longer play at a high level, then I shouldn't be on the national team. Now I have to return to my club and try to perform better."

The same could be said for everyone. So now the question is: what next? Many would say that a coach experimenting with a new formation after almost two years in the job and just a couple months away from the World Cup is a problem. It is not bad to look at a Plan B, but when nobody seems sure what Plan A even is, that just leads to confusion. It could all come together in the next few weeks, but the truth is that there hasn’t been much development in the last 20 months.

The final two warm-up games before the roster has to be named for the World Cup in May have now come and gone, with not much resolved. The only concrete development is that we now know the Czech Republic will be the first opponent before facing Mexico and South Africa. It looks like a fairly gentle group, but on the evidence of these last two matches, Korea is going to struggle.