No More Training Camp for Team Korea?

All the foreign coaches from soccer-strong countries have said in one voice, “We need more time to make the team competitive.”

It is the same with Pim Verbeek, head coach of South Korean national soccer team for the Olympics and Asian Games. After failing to win the title at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, he recently said, “The players’ understanding of tactics is not good enough. We need more time for training.” In 2002 FIFA World Cup, Verbeek assisted Guus Hiddink in leading the South Korean national team to semi-finals. Verbeek pointed out, “The team had five months of intensive training and fifteen international games before the 2002 World Cup. That is not possible anymore.”

He is right in some sense. In 2002, when Korea hosted the World Cup, priority was given to supporting the national team, but now the national team should consider other pro league teams’ situations. It is high time to adopt the style of other soccer-strong countries in which players focus on pro league games and are trained for a short time for A-matches or international games.

This is because Korean soccer can survive when pro league teams survive. There is no team willing to sacrifice for the national team. FIFA stipulates that players should be called up fourteen days before international games’ final selection, four days before pre-games, and two days before A-matches.

In other words, Verbeek needs to change as Korean soccer’s paradigm has changed since the 2002 World Cup. More people are arguing that we do not need foreign coaches if they continue to attribute the team’s poor performance to “lack of training time” like parrots. When Dick Advocaat was given more time for training before 2006 Germany World Cup, he failed to make to the field of 16.

Experts point out that one or two months of intensive training cannot improve a player’s ability to apply tactics. Korea Soccer Research Center head researcher Shin Mun-seon said, “The national team is not supposed to teach players. The coach needs to choose skilled players in good condition among pro league players. It is a retrogressive way of thinking to argue for improving skills by training players in the national team.” For the 2007 Asian Cup, Verbeek is asking for six weeks of training. K-League coaches are already resisting, saying, “It will kill the K-League.” Wisdom is needed for a better future for Korean soccer.

yjongk@donga.com