South Korea coach Jurgen Klinsmann is smiling while looking at the pitch during the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup semifinal match between Jordan and Korea held at Al Rayyan Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Qatar on the 6th (local time).
No matter how good the ingredients are, they are of no use if the ‘chef’ lacks ability. This is exactly the situation of the Korean national soccer team that suffered the ‘Al Rayyan disaster’ in Qatar.
Even though Korea possesses top-notch talents such as Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), and Hwang In-beom (Zvezda), they are held back by ‘manager risk’ and are unable to achieve their goal of winning the Asian Cup for the first time in 64 years. I couldn’t achieve it. It is expected that it will remain a competition with poor content and results.
The Korean national soccer team, led by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, lost 0-2 in the semifinals of the Asian Cup against Jordan held at the Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar on the 7th (Korean time).
Korea, ranked 23rd in the FIFA rankings, suffered a humiliating defeat against Jordan, ranked 87th, failing to record a single effective shot in the first and second halves.
In fact, there were loud voices of concern about Coach Klinsmann even before the competition. He received criticism from fans for issues outside of the game, such as the controversy over working from home and frequent outings.
There were also question marks on the team’s capabilities on the field.
In the past, former coach Paulo Bento set a clear direction from the beginning to bring the color of ‘build-up soccer’ to Korea, but coach Klinsmann could not figure out what he was pursuing. There was a lot of criticism that soccer was a neglected game that only relied on the players’ individual abilities, and there were loud voices of concern ahead of a tournament where the abilities of coaches were important.
Ahead of the tournament, global sports media ESPN directly expressed criticism towards the head coach, saying, “Korea, which is challenging to win the Asian Cup for the first time in 64 years, has the best player in Asia called Son Heung-min, but its coach is Klinsmann.”
When I opened the lid, my concerns became reality. Korea, which was shaken by exposing defensive insecurities from the group stage, advanced to the round of 16 in second place in the group with a poor record of 1 win and 2 draws. The situation did not change even after entering the knockout tournament.
Korea won the round of 16 against Saudi Arabia in a fierce battle that went to a penalty shootout, and also won the quarterfinals against Australia in overtime. Some people branded Korean soccer, which was not easily defeated, as ‘zombie soccer,’ but in reality, it was a series of poor performances.
There were no organized movements or organic team play, and simple games that relied on the individual abilities of the attackers were repeated. Thanks to the individual abilities of Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan, they advanced to the semifinals, but had limitations and ultimately suffered the humiliation of not being able to hit a single effective shot in the semifinals against Jordan.
There were a number of players playing in Europe, including Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan, who are scoring 12 and 10 goals this season in the EPL, as well as Lee Kang-in, Lee Jae-sung, and Hwang In-beom, the main players for the mammoth club Paris Saint-Germain, but there was no synergy effect at all. Rather, its destructive power has decreased.
Coach Klinsmann said, “I will take responsibility after the results come out,” but it appears that he has no intention of taking responsibility for the disaster against Jordan. Coach Klinsmann said, “Jordan played better than us. “We have to prepare for the North and Central America World Cup in the future,” he said, making it clear that he had no intention of stepping down.
Coach Klinsmann announced that upon taking office, he would make winning the Asian Cup his top priority. Even when the results of the evaluation match were not good and external issues arose, they used ‘winning the Asian Cup’ as a shield. Public opinion was ‘let’s wait until the competition’, but the results were poor.
The time has come for Korea, which has not been able to achieve the result of winning the championship even with its best-ever talents, to seriously consider working with coach Klinsmann. The talent and ability of the players we currently have are too much of a waste to continue working with Coach Klinsmann, whose ability has clearly been shown to be lacking. 토토사이트 순위