Preliminary List for Next National Olympic Soccer Team Released

Can Park Ju-yeong work once again with coach Park Seong-hwa, who trained him in his early years?

Park Seong-hwa, the new head coach of the Olympic Soccer team, released a list of players selected for the team on August 8. The preliminary list has been released in time for the final Beijing Olympic Games preliminary match with Uzbekistan, set for August 22, at Seoul World Cup stadium.

Coach Park has already shown signs of a change in strategy for the Olympic soccer team.

The 4-3-3 formation which was favored by former coach Pim Verbeek is expected to change to a 4-2-2 formation. It seems that Park Ju-yeong will be one of two tops instead of the present side attacker.

Park Ju-yeong was selected as an attacker by former coaches, Dick Advocaat and Pim Verbeek; but his performance in a series of matches has fallen short of expectations.

After playing in the national youth soccer team, coached by Park Seong-hwa, park Ju-yeong entered the spotlight kicking nine goals in five friendly matches in Qatar in 2005. Because coach Park understands him well, it is expected that he will give Park Ju-yeong the appropriated positions and chance.

But Park Ju-yeong needs to fully recover from injury in order to display his full ability. He has still not recovered from his left foot injury in May.

It has been said that, “In a worse case scenario, his injury could lead to a fatigue fracture, so he should wait to see whether he can participate in real matches, which may take until mid-late August.”

If Park Ju-yeong’s recovery is slow, he will be unable to participate in the match against Uzbekistan on August 22.

New head coach Park will determine whether Park Ju-yeong will be selected in the final list after physical check-up. In the meantime, seven new faces, including Lee Cheong-yong, were added to the preliminary list.

bluesky@donga.com