Par 4 of 32: The South Korean Interview
I caught up with Steve Han for part 4 of the series. Steve was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea and has been a fan of Korean football ever since he was a little boy. Currently, he lives in the states for education and is a college student in Beverly Hills, California. I thank Steve for agreeing to this interview.
Tell us a bit about Korea’s football history and the football culture which exists.
Football first started in Korea when British sailors who happened to visit Korea in 1882 left a ball at Jemulpo harbour. However, modern football was introduced couple decades after that incident and right now, there is a professional domestic league called the “K-League” which started in 1983. Although not as popular as national team football, there are 14 teamscompeting on a very competitive level of football.
There is also a league called the “Korean National League(N-League)” which is a second division below the K-League. N-League is a semi-professional league which consists of 11 teams and the promotion/relegation system between the K-League and N-League has yet to be formed although part of the plan is to promote the champions of this N-League season to the K-League. The plan is to continue to promote teams from the N-League without any relegations from the K-League until K-League has 16 or 18 teams in the league.
After that, they’re planning to start the proper promotion/relegation system. As for popularity of domestic football in Korea, K-League have been averaging a little over 10,000 per match in the past with N-League attendance figures being much less than that due to the fact that most N-League matches were being played during weekdays. For this season, however, most games will be played during weekends and they expect the attendance figure to increase.
Tell us a bit about the Road to the World Cup ? The qualification, and the emotions the fans went through at the time.
As historic as it is to qualify for 6 World Cup tournaments in a row and 7 in total, the fans viewed this World Cup Qualification campaign as a series of sub-par performances by our national team. A lot of it had to do with losing twice to their continental rivals Saudi Arabia and barely being able to drawUzbekistan in Tashkent.
Majority of Korean fans and the media started to pressure the FA to sack their manager Jo Bonfrere after Korea’s first loss to the Saudis in Dammam in February and he did eventually get sacked when the Koreans lost to Saudi Arabia for the second time on their home soilwhich was the last match in their qualifying rounds.
I personally thought it was unfortunate for Bonfrere to get sacked despite taking this team to qualify for the World Cup. I just thought that it wasn’t a smart move by the FA to start everything from scratch when there was less than a year remaining until the World Cup. Despite this mess, however, it was a very emotional moment for Korean football fans when the our team thrashed Kuwaitin Kuwait City to clinch the World Cup berth.
Qualifying to the World Cup 6 times in a row is something only European and South American super powers have managed to do in the past, and what our players accomplished was definitely something for of us to be proud of.
What style of football does the national team play?
The Korean players, like they did in 2002 World Cup Korea/Japan, likes to play attacking football no matter who they’re playing against. With this team being loaded with talented wingers, the Korean team excels in hurtingthe other team’s defense down the flank.
Koreans also have many talented midfielders which allows them to dominate in posessions to play their style of football against almost any team in the world. Most Korean players also like to play physical game with never-say-die attitude and they are lightening fast.
How will South Korea perform at the World Cup?
I think Korea will be just fine if they play like they have been for last six months. But then again, it would be no surprise if the Korean national team fail to perform under pressure due to the poor preparation by our FA.
I personally think it all depends on how we do against Togo in our first match. That match is crucial and if we can win that match, not only do we get 3 crucial points to begin the tourney, we’ll also be riding on a huge momentum as we face France and Switzerland. If we can get a win over Togo, I think we’ll be in the second round. Any wins from that point on would be bonus for the Korean national team, in my opinon.
Who are the young players to look out for from South Korea?
Park Chu-young, Baek Ji-hoon, and Kim Jin-kyu are players to watch. Park Chu-young is a 21 year old forward who really understands the game very well and knows where to be at the right time to score goals. He was the K-League’s Young Player of the Year last season with 18 goals. Baek Ji-hoon, is an attacking midfielder who is being absolutely loved by the current national team manager Dick Advocaat. He’s a versatileplayer who does a little bit of everything out there on the pitch.
Lastly, Kim Jin-kyu is a hard-working defender with a traditional never-say-die attitude of the Koreans. He is a very active defender and also is a dangerous set-peice taker. All 3 of these guys are only 21 and although they might not be our starters in Germany, I’d say they all have a bright futureahead of them.
Who will be the most important player for your country?
Hand’s down, it’s Park Ji-sung of Manchester United. The man is the key to our success in Germany and if he plays anything like he has been for Korea in the past, he’ll be a nightmare for the opposing team. With his ability to make runs down the pitch and create opportunities for his teammates, it’llbe almost impossible to completely shut him down.
Whoever’s defending him, his best bet is to contain him as much as he can because he won’t be able to stop him. Couple of other players to watch out for, are Lee Young-pyo of Tottenham Hotspur and Kim Nam-il of Suwon Samsung Bluewings. And unfortunately, Korea’s best striker Lee Dong-guk who would have been one of their key players in Germany will not be available due to a torn knee ligament.
Which player in your country’s side would you most like to get rid of?
Being a Korean myself, it’s hard for me to choose a player to get rid of but if I had to choose one, it’d be our third string goal keeper Cho Jun-ho. Cho Jun-ho is heading towards his mid-30s and I’d like to see a younger goalieas our third string.
Who are the players to watch from the other countries?
In our group, it would definitely be Adebayor from Togo, Frei from Switzerland, and Vieira and Makelele from France. Many people would choose Thierry Henry from France but as great as Henry can be, I feel that the key to stop France from dominating a match is to contain Vieira and Makelele who I personally think are two of the world’s best defensive midfielders. Them two are just monsters who can kill the opposing team with their ability to make the opposing team’s entire midfield a non-factor.
What will be your excuse in the event of failure?
As much as I hate making excuses, there can always be thousands of excuses for losers. If I had to pick one excuse, my first choice would be our FA’s inability to manage the national team with a proper leadership and management. As much as I’m liking our current coach Dick Advocaat, not only is sacking the manager of the team who took our team to the 6th consecutive World Cup a horrible decision, bringing in a new manager with less than a year left until the World Cup is even a worse decision.
I would have felt better about our FA’s decision if it happened earlier to give Dick Advocaat more time to prepare for the World Cup but right now, that’s simply not the case. What’s even worse is that Jo Bonfrere was not the manager who was “supposed” to be with us in Germany in the very beginning. It was the Portuguese manager Humberto Coelho who also got sacked after couple of bad results in Asian Cup qualifiers and World Cup preliminary rounds.
But at the end of the day, we didn’t fail to qualify for the Asian Cup nor the World Cup which makes me wonder if our FA’s decision was truly necessary. And another excuse I can make in case of our failure in Germany would be the absence of our forward Lee Dong-guk.
Have you got the right manager?
I feel that Dick Advocaat is a great manager and a true leader. However, if we were to sack two of our earlier managers anyways, I would have liked tosee Advocaat a lot earlier than October of 2005.
As much as I like how the Korean national team is playing under Dick Advocaat in recent friendly matches, Dick Advocaat hasn’t even had a single chance to manage this team in a competitive match such as the World Cup qualifiers or the Asian Cup. The fact that our team’s very first “competitive” match under Advocaat willbe the first game of the World Cup worries me a little bit.
What advice would you give him?
As a fan’s point of view, I’d like to see Dick Advocaat do something with our sub-par defense. Defense is what wins games at the end of the day in most sports and we haven’t had a trust-worthy backline in Korean national team since 2002 World Cup.
Which team do you most want to beat?
In group stages, it’s gonna have to be Togo. Not only because I feel that they’re the weakest out of the 3, but it’s because winning the first game is crucial for us to get to the second round. If we come out of the Togo game with 3 points, I feel that our team will be riding the momentum to perform even better against France and Switzerland as well.
Which opposition player will get the most stick?
For Togo, it would be Adebayor, Henry for France, and Frei for Switzerland for obvious reasons.
Where will you watch the matches?
I would love to be in Germany to watch the World Cup, but I’ll be watching them at home because of school and work.
How keenly will the World Cup be followed in your country?
Month of June in Korea will truly be a party-time for most Koreans. Most Korean football fans live as if they live for the World Cup. That’s part of the reason why domestic football is nowhere near as popular as the national team football in Korea. Not only will they pay a close attention to Korea games, all World Cup games will be closely followed by the Koreans.
Who will be the player of the tournament?
I’m going to say Ronaldinho. The man is just a magician out there on the
pitch.
Who will win the Golden Boot?
Ronaldo. No one knows how to score better than him. The man was born to score goals.
Which team will disappoint the most?
As much as I like the USA national team, I think they’ll have a sub-par World Cup campaign in Germany this summer. They’re in a tough group and I just can’t see them coming out on top of Italy and Czech Republic unlessthe Italians come up short again.
Ghana are also a solid team. I also have a bad feeling about England and Argentina in this World Cup. England always had tough time when they played against Sweden and I think Paraguay has agreat chance to surprise them.
As for Argentina, I don’t like their chances against Netherlands and Ivory Coast. Not to mention Serbia and Montenegro’s defense which can really become a factor in their group. Japan are also in a tough group of their own. I’m not liking their chances Croatia and Australialet alone Brazil.
Who will be the surprise team of the tournament?
Ukraine and Ivory Coast. Those two teams are loaded with talented players who are underrated and I think they have what it takes to make some noise if they can advance from their groups. I also like Korea and Austrailia. Despite some of the problems the Korean FA had with their preparation for the World Cup, I think this team has what it takes to surprise the world if they play up to their potential. Only thing that worries me is the absenceof the star striker Lee Dong-guk.
As for Australia, any team with Guus Hiddink as a manager can do some damage. Not to mention that there are a lot of talented players in Australia. But at the end of the day, any team that qualified to the World Cup in my opionion has what it takes to be sucessful once they advance from the group stages.
Maybe except Trinidad and Tobago. Not to disrespect them or anything, but they had a losing WCQs record and they barely came out on top of Bahrain in the playoffs to qualify. And I honestly believe Bahrain shouldn’t even have been there to face T&T. It should have been a much stronger side Ukraine who literally got robbed intheir playoff match against Bahrain.
Finally, Who will win the World Cup?
I’ll say Brazil simply because they’re Brazil. To be honest, anything is possible in football but when you compare Brazil’s talent to rest of the world, it’s not too hard to tell that they’re way ahead of the pack talent-wise.
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I hope you enjoyed part 4. Follow up questions for Steve can be emailed to me at pratyushkhaitan[@]gmail[.]com Also, feel free to contact me if you would like to be interviewed or know a friend who would like/could be interviewed. Specific questions for specific countries which might pop in your mind in due course may also be sent. Coming up next is the interview from Argentina.
For the rest of the interviews, check out the World Cup interview series page.
Tags: FIFA World Cup 2006, Football Interview Series, South Korean football.
