The 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup, led by head coach Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany), even left humiliating records in Korean soccer history. He scored the most runs (joint) in the tournament with 10 runs, and this is the first time in history that Korea has disgraced the most runs in the Asian Cup.
With the final match between Qatar and Jordan on the 11th, Korea's disgraceful team with the most goals scored in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup was also confirmed. Only two teams have allowed the most goals in the tournament, South Korea and Indonesia. South Korea is ranked 23rd in the FIFA rankings and Indonesia is ranked 146th.
Korea was considered the best player in the history of the tournament, but failed to score a single goal during the six matches. Starting with allowing one run (3-1 win) in the first group match against Bahrain, the number of lost points increased further as the team played the group matches, including two runs (2-2 draw) against Jordan and three runs (3-3 draw) against Malaysia. Malaysia, which had a slugfest and three goals each, displayed its best performance ever, including Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain).
The situation has not changed since entering the tournament. Although the team won after a penalty shootout and extra time, it was in a tight corner after allowing the first run to the match against Saudi Arabia (1-1 draw, penalty shootout win) and Australia (2-1 win) in the quarterfinals. Finally, the team was eliminated in the semifinals against Jordan after losing 0-2 after allowing a run in the second half.
It was a disgraceful record that AFC also shed light on the fact that Korean football allowed runs in every game. Earlier, AFC said on its website, "This is the first Asian Cup in which Korea has not been able to score a single game since the 1996 tournament." During the 1996 tournament, Korea allowed five runs in the group stage and six runs (2-6 losses) against Iran in the quarterfinals, respectively. Since the 2000 tournament, at least one game has been scoreless in each tournament, but the trend has been cut off in this tournament. At the time, AFC added, "Korea's loss in this tournament is only one goal short of the 11 goals it scored in the three tournaments from 2011 to 2019."
Furthermore, after all tournament schedules ended, another humiliation of "the team that allowed the most runs" along with Indonesia was left in the history of Korean soccer. This is the first time in 15 tournaments that Korean soccer has been disgraced with the most runs in the tournament since the first tournament in 1956, when it first participated in the Asian Cup.
Indonesia lost 10 points in four games and Korea lost six games, so Korea may be better in terms of loss rate per game, but there is no need to compete with each other. Rather, Indonesia lost no points in the group match against Vietnam, and unlike Korea, it played even one game without losing a point. Korea was the team whose goal was to win, and Indonesia is the team that made a new history of advancing to the tournament for the first time through this tournament.
Although there were variables such as "injury of Kim Seung-gyu (Al-Shabab)" as the main goalkeeper, it is difficult to say that injury of Kim Seung-gyu served as a negative factor considering the many good defense performances of Cho Hyun-woo (Ulsan HD), who defended the goal instead. Instead, some point out that it was rather poisonous that Coach Klinsmann made many changes to the defense line during the tournament. Coach Klinsmann, who emphasized continuity and stuck to Plan A since taking office, made frequent changes to the defense line after the opening of the tournament.
In fact, Seol Young-woo, who has been used only as a right full-back since Klinsmann took over, suddenly changed his position to the left during the tournament due to the aftermath of Lee Ki-je's (Suwon Samsung) slump and injury during the tournament. Kim Young-kwon (Ulsan), who played as a substitute in only one of the six A matches since September last year, suddenly started the starting position in the last four consecutive games of the tournament.
On top of that, the midfield combination, which had been pointed out as a disadvantage in every game, contributed to the unstable performance. For example, there were many scenes in which Park Yong-woo (Al-Ain) fought alone in the midfield, and in the semifinals against Jordan, he made meaningless back passes and mistakes, providing an excuse for losing a point. Ahead of the Asian Cup, most of his performances in warm-up matches at home were highlighted, but when he opened the lid, he lacked adequate defensive organization and insufficient response to the shaky defense. This is the background of the disgraceful record of the largest number of runs ever recorded.
What's even more regrettable is that Klinsmann is rather satisfied with the past journey, saying, "I can't say it's a failure because I've advanced to the semifinals of the Asian Cup." At the time of the last return interview, he said, "Since it was held in the Middle East, many East Asian teams, not only us, but also China and Japan struggled quite a bit against Middle Eastern teams. We played in an atmosphere like Middle Eastern teams were playing home games," adding, "We used the excuse of the tournament environment instead of his tactical problem. Since even the humiliating record of losing 10 goals does not include a thorough analysis or self-reflection, it is natural for critics to say that the remaining two and a half years of companionship is meaningless.
BY: 토토사이트