Coelho "I Have Killers in Mind"

“I received a list of 50 players from the Korea Soccer Association March this year, after taking over the Korean national soccer team, and I have employed 44 players. The analysis on the players is finished. Certainly there are potentially outstanding players.”

It was a conference room in the Soccer Hall in Sinmunno, Seoul. Humberto Coelho(53, picture), the head coach of the Korean national soccer team who just returned to Korea from his long vacation since the friendly match against Argentina in June, told us about his evaluation of the games that since his inauguration and Korean players, and disclosed how he plans to manage the team in the latter half of the year.

Coelho, who had A matches five times so far, emphasized that mostly importantly the team needs more time to practice. “Players had only been summoned for 22 days to play 5 games. In order to apply a new formation, it requires considerable amount of time and practice. If sufficient time is given, a great outcome is likely to come along,” Coelho said.

“For the 2004 Asian Cup Regional Preliminary Matches, which will commence in September, the team will be mostly made up of players playing in K-league, barring players playing in overseas,” Coelho added.

Coelho also said that “Korean players has a fairly good understanding of the 4-2-3-1 formation and this formation seems to strengthen the defense,” while emphasizing that he will be flexible on changing formations like he applied the 3-4-3 formation at the June match against Argentina.

He will put emphasis on 6 things during the training in the latter half of the year. Rhythm, timing, space utilizing and creation, finishing touch, strategic mind, strengthening organization, spirit. “Korean players don`t know what to do when the opponent scores a goal. They cannot think of retrieval. So I will train the players to overcome such situations,” Coelho said.

Sang-Ho Kim hyangsan@donga.com