Anxious coach Hong Myung-bo seeks one-top striker

“I can understand anxiety former coach Choi Kang-hee might have had.”

Some critics at the soccer stadium made the statement after the end of Korea-Croatia friendly match on Tuesday.

When assuming the leadership of the national team, Choi was criticized for unfairly favoring Lee Dong-guk (FC Jeonbuk), a one-top striker. Lee had displayed solid performance in the K-league and was skilled in volley shooting. But in the national team under coach Choi, Lee only scored one goal in World Cup qualifiers, other than friendly matches, and thus faced criticism. Nevertheless, Choi continued to start Lee as striker. Reflecting the situation back then, the team might have lacked qualified strikers who could serve as troubleshooter, other than Lee. Just as Choi, the new coach has the same agony now. Since Hong took the leadership, the national team scored six goals in six games. Though the record itself is not that bad, four of the six goals were scored in the friendly match (Korea wins 4-1) against Haiti, which is a weak team. A more serious problem is that none of the goals was scored by a one-top striker.

Coach Hong, who uses 4-2-3-1 formation, has deployed as one-top strikers Kim Dong-sub (FC Seongnam), Seo Dong-hyeon (FC Ulsan), Cho Dong-won (FC Suwon), and Ji Dong-won (FC Sunderland), but failed to see satisfactory results. While playing 45 minutes as starters, Ji and Cho had no single shooting at all. After the friendly match against Croatia, Hong confessed, “We don’t have many one-top strikers who can be deployed.”

Amid this situation, attention is focusing on one-top strikers Park Chu-young (Arsenal) and Lee Dong-guk who Hong has never included in his team roster. Park played one-top striker for the national team under coach Hong at the 2012 London Olympics, and made major contributions to Korea’s winning the bronze medal. The problem is that Park has not recently played matches, and lost sense of playing. Lee might emerge as an alternative as well. Due to a knee injury he had during a match against FC Seoul on August 28, he can only return to ground from late October.

Hong may wish to give yet another chance to players who were tested already. “He could give another chance to Kim Shin-wook and Kim Dong-sub anew, who are displaying best performance in the K-league at present. But both failed to display strong capacity and skills in the national team,” said Han Joon-hee, a KBS soccer commentator. Lee Keun-ho (FC Sangju) who scored a goal at the match against Haiti, and Son Heung-min (Leverkusen), who scored two in the match against Croatia, could be converted into single-top strikers. Han said, “The two players have the strongest capacity to score goals among the players in the national team. They are not orthodox strikers, but they can be optional players for the team that lacks strikers because they both have capability in swift penetrating and kicking skills.”