My thoughts on the South Korean national football team, the Football Association, the coach, and the association president

Let's go back to the beginning, to the time when the current situation began.

After successfully completing the 2022 Qatar World Cup, 

the Korea Football Association (hereinafter referred to as KFA) terminated the contract with Coach Bento.

To be precise, they let go of Coach Bento without offering a new contract, which was an unexpected outcome.
It was incomprehensible to let go of a coach who had spent four years building the Korean national team to a level where they could compete actively on the world stage.

The KFA claimed to have offered a new contract, but it's reported that they only proposed a one-year extension.

On the other hand, Coach Bento reportedly wanted a four-year extension.

I just can't understand why the KFA made such a decision.

 

It's mere speculation, but perhaps the KFA intended to observe until the Asian Cup before revisiting the discussion.

However, this seems to be out of order. 

It's hard to imagine finding another coach who could bring the national team to the level that Bento has and achieve such remarkable results.

If there were discussions about a new contract, the KFA should have already listed potential replacement coaches. 

If not, accepting Bento's willingness, the best option available at the moment, would have been more appropriate.

Even if they wanted to observe, 

they could have still done so until after the Asian Cup to decide on dismissal. 

While there are no guarantees in football, even if they had waited until after the Asian Cup, 

I believe the team would have remained strong, if not stronger, rather than crumbling.

 

Was Bento a perfect coach without any flaws? Certainly not.
Let's consider the early days of Bento's tenure.
It was Bento who led us to elimination in the quarterfinal against Qatar in the 2019 Asian Cup.

Simply comparing, it's true that Korea achieved a higher position in this tournament, 2023 Asian Cup.

But those who have been following closely would know.

The process was quite the opposite.
In essence, while Bento was on the upswing, Klinsmann was on the decline.

Despite achieving better results than in the previous tournament, criticism was even harsher, and that's because of this.

여전히 그립습니다

 

Anyway, what's done is done, and Bento has left Korea.
Then it was necessary to find a proper alternative.

But the alternative brought in was Klinsmann.

Jürgen Klinsmann.

As a player, he achieved remarkable feats to the extent that it's hard to criticize.
As a striker for West Germany, he scored goals for both the national team and club teams indiscriminately.
He's even like a sky-high senior to players like Son Heung-min of Tottenham and Kim Min-jae of Bayern.

 

The blond bomber who lifted Germany into the World Cup. 

That was Klinsmann's nickname during his playing days.

However, his performance as a coach is not much different from his playing days, if not worse. 

To the extent that it even tarnishes his status as a player.

There are many episodes, but if we talk about two major ones,

Firstly, there's the story from his disciple Philipp Lahm, a legend of both Germany and Bayern, about Klinsmann's time as the coach of Bayern Munich and the Germany National team.

In Philipp Lahm's autobiography, there's a story that goes like this:

"Under Klinsmann, we only did physical training. There were hardly any tactical instructions, and the players gathered to discuss how to play the game. Klinsmann's words were merely for motivation to score goals."

It's a story that's hard to believe, coming from a legendary player of Germany, about a coach who was also a legendary player of Germany.

 

The second incident occurred when he took over as the coach of Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga.

This is even more unbelievable because, just over two months after taking the job as the coach of Hertha Berlin, he abruptly announced his resignation via Facebook Live.

Yes, you read that correctly. He indeed announced his resignation via Facebook Live.

It's said that there was discord with the club's management, but does it make sense to announce your resignation via Facebook Live because of that?
Furthermore, at that time, Hertha Berlin had even made their highest transfer expenditure in club history to support Klinsmann.

Despite all that, such an unbelievable incident occurred.

 

Anyone with even a basic understanding of football would have known that this person is not just unsuitable but outright bizarre as a coach.

What's even more infuriating is that the KFA brought in this person as an alternative to Bento, presenting him as a viable option.

What makes this even more infuriating is that it completely disregarded the well-established process and system for appointing coaches that the KFA officials had diligently put in place during Bento's appointment, and it was a unilateral decision by KFA Chairman Chung Mong-gyu.

When Bento was appointed, it was after a thorough process led by the head of the Coach Appointment Board of Directors, Kim Pan-gon (currently the coach of the Malaysian national team) to filter, check, and analyze coaching candidates.

Therefore, Bento was chosen based on a decision that was deemed necessary at the time, and Kim Pan-gon had explained the process and rationale behind bringing in Bento.

Such a rational decision-making process was carried out, and since the entire decision-making process was transparent, the public had no choice but to accept it.

 

There was no such process in Klinsmann's appointment.

While the existing system was utilized for the appointment, it's said that the candidates selected through it did not appeal to the final decision-maker, KFA Chairman Chung Mong-gyu. (?????)

As a result, the appointed head coach of the national team became Klinsmann.

This is not some kind of soap opera; what on earth are they doing?

Personally, I believe people don't change.
And this saying applied to Klinsmann.
His behaviors, which resembled a series of misadventures, continued.

As a national team coach, one would naturally observe the K League, which has the most Korean players, to assess potential squad members. 

However, instead of doing so, Klinsmann went to watch the games of Son Heung-min and Kim Min-jae, who were already performing well abroad and were inevitably going to be selected anyway.

Moreover, he submitted the national team roster without holding a press conference, simply writing it on a single sheet of A4 paper.

But the most shocking thing was that he didn't even watch K League players directly; instead, it was said that he observed them through a football data analysis site called Wyscout.

 

Such analysis data is accessible to anyone as long as they pay for it.
It's not about the quality of the site being inferior; rather, Klinsmann should have observed the players on the field.
Stats and data can indeed be analyzed much better by such analysis sites with extensive databases.
However, there's a difference in seeing things firsthand.
What a coach needs to see are not just stats but also players' psychology, habits, and tendencies.
Observing things like, "This player has this habit in such situations," or "This player's facial expression changes in certain circumstances," or "This player has a particular habit when receiving the ball."

Taking all these factors into account and making decisions about the national team roster is what a coach should do.
It's absurd to think of solely relying on superficial statistical analysis data from a website to compose the roster, as if it were just playing a game.

Frankly, it's no different from playing Football Manager right now.
With FM, I could achieve a 10-year winning streak in the UEFA Champions League myself.

 

It's a well-known fact that the national team's performance during this tournament wasn't good.

Naturally, there are many people criticizing the players.
It's inevitable.
Because it's the players who actually play on the field.
And it's true that those players didn't perform well.

However, I don't want to criticize the players that much.
If you're a player, especially if you're selected for the national team, there's no one who wouldn't do their best.
The players didn't perform well simply because, frankly speaking, they are just at that level of talent.

Sports, athletics are domains of talent.
Effort is essential, but without the fundamental talent, succeeding in sports is more difficult than any other field, I believe.
The players being criticized for their performance in this tournament are just at that level of talent.
Within that talent, they must have truly squeezed out and given their best.

Take Park Yong-woo, for example, who is currently receiving a lot of criticism.
Park Yong-woo, of course, didn't perform well.

He made critical mistakes that led to conceding goals and gave away numerous turnovers.

But did Park Yong-woo do it because he wanted to?

No, that player did his best, but in that situation, he could only deliver that level of performance.
It's not about defending or criticizing; it's just a matter of fact.

Regardless of whether they did well or not, the players really went through a lot.

 

Criticism should be directed towards the coach regarding the team's performance and results.

Why this player was selected for the national team,
Why this player was included in the squad list,
And why this player is in this position and what role they should play 

- all of these decisions fall on the coach.

But with Klinsmann, there was none of that.
The squad lists and starting lineups were incomprehensible even to an ordinary football fan.

He included players like Lee Ki-je, who were struggling to get playing time even at his club,

and they even put him in the starting lineup.

I heard that Kim Jin-soo, who is considered the best left-back in the K League, was fully recovered from injury from the Round of 16 onwards, but he was never put in the starting lineup, and he barely played for 20 minutes as a substitute.

Why didn't Lee Soon-min, who was selected for the K League Best 11 in the 2023 season, even step onto the field?
Why wasn't Park Jin-seob, who could be the primary shield in midfield when defense was shaky, ever given a chance?
And why weren't players like Yang Hyeon-jun and Moon Seon-min, who could break through defenses with their individual dribbling abilities when the attack was stagnant, even considered?
And why wasn't Joo Min-gyu, one of the best strikers in the K League, even selected?

There's not a single aspect that I understand, not a single part that is explained.

It just seems like there's no thinking behind it.

 

Another person to blame undoubtedly is the president of the KFA, Chung Mong-gyu, who appointed such an individual as coach.

What qualifications does he have to run a national football association like a small business?

If the candidates for coach were not satisfactory, I don't even know what part of them was not satisfactory,
Anyway let's assume that there were doubts about the competence of those coaching candidates.

Then, instead of arbitrarily selecting a new coach, he should have revised the process.

"How about evaluating these aspects to address doubts about their competence?"
The system should have been revised, and the system should automatically upgrade itself.

For sustainable development, the system must be established and operate stably, and the system must be upgraded.

One Superman may appear and temporarily shine, but that is an insecure light that collapses when that Superman disappears.

Moreover, even Chung Mong-gyu, who seems to be trying to fulfill that role now, is not a Superman in the football world.

 

Of course, I believe there are many sincere individuals within the KFA who genuinely wish for the advancement of Korean football and work tirelessly towards that goal.

However, due to the inherent nature of large organizations, the influence of the organization's leaders is inevitably significant.

The two organizations currently being discussed, the South Korean national football team and the Korea Football Association, have leaders who, frankly speaking, lack the qualifications.

Not only do they lack qualifications, but I also believe they hinder progress and even contribute to regression.

For the betterment of South Korean football, I believe it is right for both Chung Mong-gyu and Klinsmann to step down from their positions.