Advocaat: Step-By-Step Training Is Key

Dick Advocaat’s roadmap for the 2006 Germany World Cup involves gradual upgrades through evaluation matches against strong teams. In the center of this plan is six weeks of overseas training that starts on January 15. Korea will use this training period to adapt to the most feared European teams in its group: France and Switzerland.

Korea will have its first evaluation match against the United Arab-Emirates on January 18 in Dubai, United Arab-Emirates. It will then move to Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia, and face Greece (January 21) and Finland (January 25). Finland (46th in FIFA rankings) and Greece (16th) rely not so much on personal techniques, but on stable defenses based on tight teamwork. Their style of play is similar to Switzerland’s.

Korean will then move to Hong Kong on January 26 to play against Croatia, Denmark, or Hong Kong in the Carlsberg Cup. Eastern Europe’s powerhouse Croatia (20th in FIFA rankings) recorded 7 wins, 3 ties, and no losses in European preliminary matches, putting them in first place in Group 8. Denmark (13th) is another opponent for Korea to build up tolerance for European teams against.

On February 2, the Korean national team will fly to Los Angeles to face more strong teams.

On February 4, it will play a match against the U.S. national team. It will face Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy on February 8; Costa Rica on February 11, and return to L.A and face Mexico on Feb. 15. The U.S. (8th), Costa Rica (21th), and Mexico (5th) all have higher FIFA rankings than Korea.

Korean national team will then re-assemble in May and fly to Glasgow, Scotland for adaptation training, and then fly to Köln.

More evaluation matches against world’s strongest teams are scheduled in this training period.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com