Team Verbeek’s Debut Is Unimpressive

“Everyone must have been disappointed at the game today,” admitted Korean national soccer team coach Pim Verbeek after Korea tied 1-1 with Iran in 2007 Asian Cup preliminary match at Seoul World Cup Stadium on September 2.

Verbeek, who has been criticized for lacking creative technique even after Korea beat Taiwan 3-0 in his debut match as a Korean team coach on August 16, is getting off to a rocky start. Coach Verbeek, like his predecessor Dick Advocaat, uses a 4-3-3 formation. Verbeek is testing the current formation by changing players’ positions.

What was notable in the match against Iran is that Kim Dong-jin (Zenit), who used to be a wing back Advocaat, played as a centre back. Regarding Kim’s changed position, Verbeek explained that it was for broadly making use of Lee Young-pyo (Tottenham)’s offensive capability. This means that Verbeek needed a player with good physical power and left feet skill suitable for the position to fill the void while an offensive left-wing defender Lee overlapped positions.

The Korean national soccer team has to find a skilled centre back in the four back defense system. Coach Verbeek seems to have tested Kim for the centre back position. Kim Young-gwang (Jeonnam) played a goalkeeper instead of Lee Un-jae (Suwon).

Regarding applying Park Ji-sung (Manchester) and Seol Ki-hyun (Reading) as wing forwards, former coach Advocaat used the position several times before.

After all, Kim Dong-jin played well as a centre back. Although Korea allowed one goal to Iran as another centre back Kim Sang-sik (Seongnam) missed a ball just one minute before the game ended, this was because Korea’s overall pressure on the Iranian team disappeared from midfield prior to Kim’s mistake.

Missing pressure was due to the decline in the Korean team’s physical activity and lack of concentration. The coach of the Iranian team Amir Ghaleneoi said, “We knew that the Korean team loses its power and strength, analyzed it and focused on taking advantage of it.”

Coach Verbeek, of course, had insufficient time to assemble and train players full scale and doing training to build up physical fitness.

However, Korea’s offensive route was still monotonous. In spite of Seol’s great breakthrough as a right wing, in general, Korea’s crosses were not sharp enough. In addition, the formation itself is not very effective against a team consisting of players with strong physique. As a result, Korea used a mediocre attack route.

It may be still premature to expect much from coach Verbeek but at present, there is too little change and the attacking strategy remains the same. Verbeek selected many new players but is not capable of utilizing them.

Might Coach Verbeek want to get off to a safe start in the shadow of Advocaat? If Verbeek wants to test the team, it could be better for him to do so in the earlier days of his new position. The more time passes, the harder testing will become.

bluesky@donga.com