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The Korean national soccer team's challenge to win the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup ended in vain. Looking back at the Klinsmann's inability to come together during the competition, the failure of the competition seems to be a natural result.
The Korean national soccer team, led by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, was defeated 0-2 in the semifinals of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup against Jordan on the 7th. Korea suffered a humiliating defeat against Jordan without attempting a single effective shot in 90 minutes.
Coach Klinsmann, who showed lethargy despite leading the best team of all time consisting of Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), is under pressure to be dismissed due to poor leadership and lack of tactics.
There is another reason for criticism. This is a failure in team management. 메이저사이트
Coach Klinsmann had already sensed that the team was cracking, but did not take any action, which ultimately led to the team being eliminated in the semifinals.
According to News 1 coverage, the day before the semifinal against Jordan, key members of the national team, including Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in, clashed.
Son Heung-min expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that some young players, including Lee Kang-in, Seol Young-woo (Ulsan), and Jung Woo-young (Freiburg), finished dinner quickly and left to play table tennis.
From the beginning of the tournament period, there were voices of dissatisfaction with the behavior and attitude of the young players within the team, and captain Son Heung-min raised his voice at a time when team unity was important.
An official from the Korea Football Association said, “Son Heung-min was displeased with the fact that some players, including Lee Kang-in, played table tennis the day before the game. He spoke bitterly because he was the captain. However, Lee Kang-in did not accept it and instead became irritated, and Son Heung-min, who was angry at that time, grabbed Lee Kang-in by the collar,” he explained the situation at the time.
When Son Heung-min grabbed him by the collar, Lee Kang-in immediately counterattacked with a punch. Son Heung-min dodged Lee Kang-in's fist, and immediately his teammates nearby rushed in to dissuade him from fighting. In this situation, Son Heung-min suffered a dislocated finger while trying to resist the restraints of his teammates.
The collision between the two is an incident that shows that discord continued to exist within the Klinsmann.
In the process of preparing for this competition, the athletes were divided into exactly three groups. Senior players including Son Heung-min, Kim Jin-su, Kim Tae-hwan (Jeonbuk), Kim Young-kwon (Ulsan), and Lee Jae-seong (Mainz), a group born in 1996 including Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), Hwang In-beom (Zvezda), and Kim Min-jae, and Lee Kang-in and Seol. They were divided into a group of young players including Youngwoo, Jung Wooyoung, and Oh Hyeongyu (Celtic).
They worked together with each other during rondo (5-on-2 pass) training and step training that preceded full-scale training.
Even outside of training, they moved in their own groups. There was no change in the members even when they used restaurants outside the dorm on rest days. The atmosphere is comparable to that of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Asian Cup five years ago, when the atmosphere was not good and the senior players took their younger players out for a meal and tried to unite them.
The teams are divided not only by age but also by stage of activity. After the second group match of the 2026 North and Central America World Cup Asia 2nd qualifying round, which was held in China in November last year, players active in Europe such as Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, Lee Kang-in and Hwang Hee-chan rented a chartered plane at their own expense and returned to Korea before their home base.
In a situation where the national team's schedule had not yet been completed, some players showed individual behavior that could harm team work. However, neither Coach Klinsmann nor the Football Association could stop it.
During the Asian Cup, a scene was captured at the training ground where a European player got nervous after a strong physical fight with a domestic player and kicked the ball hard to vent his anger. Only other European players consoled him for this behavior, and other players active in Korea laughed awkwardly. Even the seniors just pretended not to notice. It was a team that was far from ‘us’.
It's not just the players who are divided. It was reported that communication between the foreign coaching staff and the players was not smooth. All groups moved separately. It may have been unreasonable to expect good results from Klinsmann, who was unable to come together as a team. 메이저 토토사이트