Immature Korea Soccer

At least one team from Europe will be in the same group with Korea in 2002 World Cup. To be eligible for one of the 16 finalists, Europe is `unavoidable obstacle` to Korea. On August 16, Korea National Soccer Team was defeated by 0-5 in an evaluation game held in Drunoviche Stadium in Brno, Czech against Czech, 9th in world ranking, in which Baranec achieved a hat trick.

This is the third defeat of 0-5 from Europe after a loss to Netherlands in 1998 France World Cup and a loss to France in 2001 Confederation Cup. Even after Gus Hiddink, who is an expert in Europe soccer, became the head coach of Korea National Soccer team, Korea did not win any game against Europe team but lost all 4 games.

Is Europe an insurmountable mountain? Most domestic experts do not think so.

Even at the game against Czech, Korea played quite well until the early second half, though Korea lost a leading goal to Nedbed at 29 minutes in the first half.

At 24 and 25 minutes in the first half, Ahn Jung-Hwan and Hwang Sun-Hong threatened the opponents with sharp shootings respectively. In addition, at 7 minutes in the second half, Sul Kih-Yun diverted the strong shooting of Ahn Jung-Hwan. But the shooting was blocked by the Czech goalkeeper. The real problems occurred after 20 minutes in the second half, when Korea lost a second goal. Korea couldn`t concentrate on the game anymore and collapsed rapidly against Czech`s attack.

Head coach Hiddink mentioned two things as defeat factors; naïve simple play and no play control. However, domestic experts commented, ``It was very hard to figure out what kind of strategy was exercised in the game.``

Huh Jung-Moo, former head coach of Korea National soccer team, said, ``Although there are 9 months left until the World Cup, no organizational power appears to be stabilized in both offense and defense aspects.`` Considering that the organizational cooperation is important in a game against superior teams because of the lack of 1 to 1 defensibility, the preparation was not made appropriately. During counterattacks, passing between players was not effective and the attack routes were too simple. Since there is no special meaning to have a playmaker in a game against strong team, the most urgent business is to determine `Best 11 members` as early as possible and then to equip them with strong organizational power.

Lee Hui-Taek, former head coach, also said, ``The organizational power in the midfield and defense appears immature. More frequent games against superior teams can help stabilize the organizational power.``

Bae Keuk-In bae2150@donga.com