When a fox Meets a Bear; The Upcoming Match Between Hiddink and Arena

Korea and the United States are about to face off in a D group match in Daegu tomorrow at 3:30 pm ,where the advance of the second round is at stake for both. And it will produce a lot of sparks in the fight between the couches, Guus Hiddink and Bruce Arena who have totally different strategies..

First, Korean coach Hiddink, 56, is called `fox of ground`. The Dutchman makes a point of setting carefully calculated strategies ahead of every game. And to achieve his goal, he pushed hard his players. He makes his players to obey him by drawing them into a fierce competition for major players themselves. To survive, they have no choice but to play the way their couch wants. Also, he has a special capability in the nerve war before and during games. Such a characteristic played out against the United States

as well..

"Actually, the game was supposed to end 2-2, not 3-2.", he commented concerning the United States` unexpected win over Portugal last wednesday. "The judge didn`t call Off-side, which gave the US the second goal as a gift." He strategically downplayed the

performance of the US team.

He went so far as to say that "We should also be prepared against the possible misjudgement", indicating the judges` impact on the outcome to get on the nerves of the rival team. In addition, he confused the US in setting strategies by making them difficult to know whether Hwang Sun-hong and Yoo Sang-chul, who each netted a goal against Poland are actually injured or not.

By contrast, US coach Arena is known as `bear`. He never hurries. He`d rather encourage his players to play on their own than push them into doing something he dictates. His open-mindedness makes him enjoy being with his players regularly, talking about a lot including personal matters. As for strategies, he has almost nothing to hide. But his easygoing manner is not what he is all about. He focuses on insuring substantiality as well.

The US team seemed very relaxed when they arrived in seoul, taking time off to go shopping and visit the DMZ. Such an atmosphere was possible because they were already completely prepared. Arena once made a joke at Korean team who was traning twice a day, saying that "Why are you training twice? Didn`t you say you are totally prepared?" That showed part of his style.

His unique style like above led to an extraordinary 3-2 win over Portugal, beating out expectations of most experts in favor of the opposite. So, who is stronger of the two? Fox or Bear? Tomorrow`s `Daegu showdown` has an answer.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com