National Team Will Train In Scotland

Korean national soccer team coach Dick Advocaat (58) returned on November 4 after a trip to Europe to check on Korean players playing in Europe and to look for an appropriate location for a training camp.

The Dutch coach said, “The training camp will be based in Glasgow, Scotland in May, to prepare for the 2006 Germany World Cup finals.” From 1998 to 2002, Advocaat led the Glasgow Rangers team to the championship of the Scotland Cup and the FA Cup.

He added, “During the 10-day training camp, our team is planning to have a couple of friendly matches in Glasgow or in London, UK.”

After watching the play of Lee Young-pyo (28. Tottenham Hotspur) and Seol Ki-hyeon (26. Wolverhampton Wanderers) firsthand, Advocaat said, “I know much about Lee Young-pyo because I’ve seen his play from the Dutch League. He did a good job in the mach against Arsenal as well. ” Yet, he expressed regret saying, “I only had the opportunity to watch Seol’s play for 25 minutes.”

As for the friendly match against Sweden on November 12, the coach said, “There is no huge difference between 3-4-3 and 4-3-3. What is important is to take the upper hand over the opponent everywhere: on both sides as well as in the center. Players on Advocaat’s second roster of the national squad will gather at the Grand Hotel in Seoul at noon on November 10 for matches against Sweden and Serbia-Montenegro. Meanwhile, Advocaat was known to have been a baseball player. His interpreter Park Il-ki said, “Advocaat told me that he played a baseball as a club activity in his middle school days, and I heard he decided to be a soccer player because he was better at soccer than baseball.”

Jae-Yun Jung jaeyuna@donga.com