Everything is unsatisfactory .Instead of feeling stronger as time passed, tactical loopholes only increased, and eventually they suffered the humiliation of losing 3 goals to Malaysia, ranked 130th in the FIFA rankings, and drawing.As Klinsmann advanced to the round of 16 in the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup with poor organizational skills, conceding as many as 6 goals in 3 group stage games, a cloud appears to be increasingly clouding his challenge to ‘reclaim the throne’ for the first time in 64 years. The Korean national soccer team, led by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, drew 3-3 in the final match of the Group E match against Malaysia held at Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar on the 25th (Korean time). The fact that Korea, ranked 23rd in the FIFA rankings and considered a strong candidate to win this tournament, allowed 3 goals to Malaysia, the ‘weakest team’, which is a whopping 107 places lower, makes today’s draw closer to a defeat.
With the draw on this day, Korea recorded 1 win, 2 draws (5 points) in the group stage, and advanced to the round of 16 in second place in the group, following Bahrain (2 wins, 1 draw, 6 points).Klinsmann’s opponent in the round of 16 is the top team in Group F. The winner of the match between Saudi Arabia (6 points) and Thailand (4 points) will compete with Korea to advance to the quarterfinals .If the two draw, they will face Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s FIFA ranking is 56th, and Thailand is 113th.Both teams are ranked much lower than Korea’s, but the reality is that considering the performance they showed in the group stage, it is not enough to give us confidence that Korea can win. From the first match of the group stage against Bahrain, Klinsmann failed to show a proper show of force to overwhelm his opponent. In-beom Hwang (Zvezda) scored the first goal, but lost the lead by giving up an equalizer early in the second half. They secured victory thanks to a multi-goal one-man show in the second half by Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), who is considered the future of Korean soccer, but was burdened with five yellow cards.
Against Jordan, the opponent in the second game, Son Heung-min (Tottenham) scored the go-ahead penalty kick goal in the 9th minute of the first half, but allowed the score to be tied through an own goal in the 37th minute, and was dragged away by conceding a comeback goal in extra time of the first half .Fortunately, they escaped defeat by drawing 2-2 due to an own goal in extra time in the second half .In the third game against Malaysia, they showed an even poorer performance. Jung Woo-young (Stuttgart)’s first header led to a 1-0 score in the first half, but after a fierce battle in the second half, the team gave up as many as three goals and drew 3-3. The true face of Korean soccer, revealed through the three group league games, is that it is ‘soccer worth the name’ without substance. This is because the brilliant members, such as Son Heung-min, Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), Lee Kang-in, and Kim Min-jae (Munich), who are playing on the top European stages, only shine with the name value, and have not yet shown the appearance of a ‘championship candidate’.Korea attempted to shoot 56 times during the three games, but had only 20 effective shots, or 36%.Of the 20 effective shots, 8 resulted in goals.
Considering that not only were all opponents one level below the other, but also that most of our national team’s offensive line consisted of players who played as main players in Europe, it is clear that these are ‘insignificant’ figures. What’s even more unfortunate is that they gave up a whopping 6 runs in 3 games, or 2 runs per game .Considering that Bahrain, ranked 1st in the group, and Jordan, who ranked 3rd, only conceded 3 goals, it is enough to hear the sarcasm of ‘defense as good as a grain of sand’ .The Taegeuk Warriors’ effective tactical performance, which solved the problem when the opponent drew out a front pressure card with a strong dense defense, was also disappointing in meeting the expectations of the fans. Two of the goals conceded against Malaysia that day were due to defensive mistakes in our camp .Moreover, in a situation where victory was in sight, they launched an unreasonable attack and were defeated by a single counterattack, causing the team to miss out on a well-earned victory, which was an accident caused by the players’ clumsy desire to win. The Taegeuk Warriors’ goal is to win. The group stage is a stage for improving the perfection of offensive and defensive tactics. However, the performance of the Taegeuk Warriors in the group 스포츠토토존 stage seems far removed from that of a team aiming to win the championship.