A Nostalgic Korean Summer

The K-League All Stars game is a regular part of the Korean football calendar and a much-loved fixture at that. The format changes as in the past, northern teams have played southern teams, the K-League team has played J-League counterparts and two years ago, even Barcelona provided the opposition.

This time though, the team lining up against the All-Stars on July 5, made up of players who won the most votes in a nationwide poll, are special. It is the 2002 World Cup team. As this month marks the tenth anniversary of that glorious run to the semi-final, the authorities have seen fit to mark the occasion with what should be a sell-out exhibition at Seoul World Cup Stadium, where the run came to an end at the hands of Germany.

It is being organized by the star of the show Ahn Jung-hwan. The recently retired striker who headed Italy out of the competition on that unforgettable night in Daejeon, an incredible night in both football terms and what happened in the country in the following hours and days, is heading the marketing campaign. He has already been seen calling captain Hong Myong-bo who then gets hold of Guus Hiddink. Both will be present.

It remains to be seen if Park Ji-sung will make it though it doesn’t look likely and Lee Young-pyo will be busy in MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps. Most of the others will be there – Seol Ki-hyeon, Kim Nam-il and Lee Woon-jae are still active in the K-League while the likes of Ahn and Song Chung-guk have just recently retired. Hwang Sun-hong and Yoo Sang-chul, who scored in the opening round 2-0 win over Poland, are now K-League coaches with Pohang Steelers and Daejeon Citizen respectively.

It promises to be quite a night.  

FA Cup fighting

There was a good deal of hand-wringing after the fist-flinging at Seoul World Cup Stadium on June 20 in the fourth round of the FA Cup between bitter rivals FC Seoul and Suwon Bluewings. Once again, Suwon got the better of the capital club with a 2-0 win although the goals will not be remembered long. What will stick in the memory are 42 fouls, one red card (and there really should have been more with some of the wild challenges) and the mass brawl that broke out at the end of the game.

It didn’t stop there as Korean media reported that a Seoul marketing officials was hospitalized by a member of the Suwon staff. After a fifth straight defeat against Suwon, a number of Seoul fans then protested outside the stadium against their own team (sitting top of the league at this point) and lay down in front of the team bus.  

Back to the league

Jeonbuk Motors are the form team at the moment with five straight wins which contained 19 goals. Chile recruit Hugo Droguett has found his feet in the league and is starting to shine after a slow start. Lee Dong-gook is never far from the scoresheet and netted a hat-trick in a recent 5-3 win at home to Gyeongnam FC, goals 124, 125 and 126 in the K-League. Nobody has scored more.

 There are worries for Seongnam. Three straight defeats in the league and an elimination from the FA Cup, the club’s best hope of a place in the 2013 Asian Champions League (they were eliminated from the 2012 version recently) have put the pressure on Shin Tae-young. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had led the team to the 2010 Asian title, he may be in a little danger. As it is, he can stand by the sidelines looking annoyed.

There have been many changes at the club since that 2010 win and just as the team was starting to settle in the second half of 2011, there was another raft at the end of the season. Too many good players have left for the liking of fans who have demanded a meeting with the club.

Daejeon Citizen seem to going in the opposite direction. A truly dreadful start to the season in which they lost nine out of the first ten games, had everyone tipping the Purple Emperors for the drop. But three wins out of the last four – including a 3-0 victory at Seongnam – have seen Yoo Sang-cheol’s men start to pull away from the basement.

Belgian striker Kevin Oris has started to look very good and if former injury-prone national team midfielder Kim Hyeung-beom can keep fit and scoring the kind of screamer that did for Seongnam, the future may be bright.

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2010 World Cup Could Have Been Korea Reunion

The World Cup is always exciting but for fans of South Korea, June 2010 is going to be fascinating.

If being in a group with South American powerhouse Argentina, 2004 European champions Greece and African giant Nigeria wasn’t exciting enough, there could be some familiar faces around this summer.

Pim Verbeek is one. The Dutchman was the assistant coach at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and then took the helm in July 2006 for a period of one year during which he led South Korea to third place at the 2007 Asian Cup. As soon as the competition finished, so did Verbeek’s time in the Land of the Morning Calm and he resigned.

A few months later, he surfaced in Australia, after Dick Advocaat, South Korea’s 2006 World Cup boss, refused the job, Verbeek took charge. Charged with leading the Socceroos to South Africa, the laconic European did just that.

Australia strolled through qualification and finds itself in a tough-looking group with European heavyweight Germany, talented Ghana and a tough-looking Serbian team. Such a line-up reads slightly scarier than the one at the Asian Cup which involved Indonesia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia but Verbeek is feeling confident.

“I can honestly say there was one word that shot through my mind when we came out in a group with Germany – great!” He wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It's the second-toughest group overall, I'm sure about that. But when the stakes are so high, we'll be up for a fight. Germany are very strong…Over the years they have shown how successful you can be with a team that works together.

"Ghana are playing on their home continent but that's a double-edged sword. They will have support for sure, but as with Germany will also face pressure to live up to the fans' expectations. We beat them last year in a friendly in Sydney, though neither side was at its strongest. Serbia will be quick but also strong.”

Verbeek will always have a special place in the hearts of South Korean fans. As well as his time in charge of the national team, he will be remembered as an assistant to Guus Hiddink in 2002.

Hiddink took Australia to the 2006 World Cup and after subsequent spells with the Russian national team and a temporary job in charge of London club Chelsea, it looked for a time as if the man, who was granted honorary citizenship of Korea after his exploits with the Taeguk Warriors, was going to be at the 2010 World Cup.

The well-travelled tactician takes the Turkey job in August, leaving a window of opportunity to take the vacant Ivory Coast position though he has since ruled himself out. It would have made for an even more fascinating Group G. The talented Africans, defeated 2-0 by South Korea in a recent warm-up in London, have been placed in a group with Brazil, Portugal and North Korea. South Korean fans were already looking forward to seeing how their northern neighbors perform in such a tough environment but the addition of Hiddink into the mix would have been the egg on the top of that particular bi-bim-bap.

Hiddink was also in the frame for the Nigeria job that was vacant until earlier this month. He didn’t get it but one of his predecessors in Seoul definitely wanted it.

Jo Bonfrere arrived in South Korea in June 2004, took the team through qualification for the World Cup before resigning in August 2005. As the man with past experience with Nigeria, he led the team to the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics; the Dutchman was desperate for the chance to finally go to the World Cup.

"I know your players very well,” he said last month. "The players have confidence in me, I also have confidence in them, I know what it takes to build a good team for Nigeria, I only needs time for training," he said.

"I always say that Nigeria can beat any team in the world. But you have to build a team to achieve this. There is no problem of players, the players are there, what is needed is just time to build a team. If you give me the job on time, I will build a team that will reach the final of the World Cup in South Africa," he added.

Bonfrere’s predecessor Humberto Coelho, who resigned in May 2003, was also very close to South Africa. He led Tunisia through qualification to the stage where the Carthage Eagles needed just to win their last game in Mozambique to make it to the 2010 World Cup. Tunisia lost and Coelho was out of a job. Another former South Korean assistant coach Afshin Ghotbi is now coach of Iran’s national team and came very close to qualifying for South Africa.

If only all had made it. It would have been a Korean reunion like no other!


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