“Korea, Not Yet…“

Defense and Offense, hard to catch two rabbits with one shot?

The Korean national soccer team lost to the U.S. professional team LA Galaxy in the exhibition match held at Fullerton, California, by 0-1 due to lack of overall balance.

However, the team’s play was not too bad considering terrible ground conditions, and the fact that the players have focused only on physical strength training so far. As the team paid most of its attention on the players` conditioning and check on offense strategy rather than victory, the team was not concerned about the lost point. Nonetheless, the match gave the team a huge assignment for the offense line.

First Half

Head coach Guss Hiddink tried a rather radical experiment by placing Choi Yong-Soo and Kim Do-Hoon as two lead players, Lee Chon-Soo as the playmaker, and Lee Ul-Yong, who was doing well at left midfield, as defensive midfielder.

The strategy was to use the fast Lee Chun-Soo to ensure central offense route, but this weakened both two sides and opened up opportunities for the other team. There were some opportunities after the middle of the first half as LA Galaxy relaxed a little, but Kim Do-Kun and Hyun Young-Min were not able to take advantage of them. Especially the Korean midfielders kept losing the ball, upsetting the game’s flow.

Frontline strikers did not appear good either. It was difficult to see effective penetrations, except a few long-distance shot opportunities that Kim Do-Hoon and Choi Yong-Soo created for Lee Chun-Soo.

Second Half

Hwang Sun-Hong and Cha Doo-Ri were given the two lead position, Park Ji-Sung was the playmaker, and Kim Nam-Il and Choi Sung-Yong were newly put in as midfielders.

The match seemed more hopeful for the Korean team than in the first half. Hwang Sun-Hong and Choi Sung-Yong displayed their `2 to 1 pass` technique, breaking the enemy’s right defense line, and Cha Doo-Ri tried his best by making brave shots. Korea’s continuous penetrations of the center and side defense lines threatened the Galaxy’s goal post. The problem was a decisive play for a goal. Choi Sung-Yong’s side centering was too high, and Cha Doo-Ri’s shots were too straightforward.

Instead, the offensive Korean team collapsed during one counterattack. Tennyson received a through-pass from the half line and scored the match goal, leaving Lee Min-Sung and GK Kim Byung-Jee behind.

Coach Hiddink pointed out after the match, "There were 4, 5 chances. I feel regretful missing all of them. We will focus on goal decisiveness from now on. Also, Midfielders could not make goal opportunities in the first half. Some of them must work on physical strength."

Keuk-In Bae bae2150@donga.com