Huh Sweats Nat’l Soccer Team on Harsh Training Regimen

National soccer team coach Huh Jung-moo grilled the players on a harsh training regimen from his first day at the helm.

Coach Huh had the team players do the “shuttle run” yesterday at the National Football Center in Paju City, Gyeonggi Province, preparing for a match against Chile on Wednesday. The training program is most “feared” by athletes due to its exhaustive nature. Waiting for the turn, players lightly warmed up on the ground with balls. When called up, a couple of them took turns in running the 50-meter section 3.5 times. Cho Jin-su, 25, Jeju United, set the fastest record by running the repeated section in 57 seconds. Other players exceeded one minute each. Including the oldest member on the team, Kim Byung-ji, all players gushed out breaths from exhaustion. Team captain Kim Nam-il confessed after the training session, “It was his first day. We wrongly thought he would just give light warm-up sessions. Instead, he lived up to his reputation.”

Since his inauguration speech, Huh has repeatedly stressed that basics and strong stamina come before anything else.

Huh commented after the session, “I wanted to know how strong they were. They are not 100-percent satisfactory. But not that bad, I think.”

In the meanwhile, the Korea Football Association (KFA) released the new uniform design of the national team yesterday. Designed by KFA official sponsor Nike, each uniform set fits more tightly to the body to prevent the snatching by opponents and weighs 153 grams less, or 18 percent lighter than the previous one. Curve lines on the neck and sides highlight the Korean traditional line features. Tiger strips are printed on the uniform with a word “fighting spirit.”

bluesky@donga.com