After reaching the quarterfinals of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) U-20 World Cup for the second consecutive tournament, the U-20 national soccer team received a warm welcome. The players of the municipal team received encouraging words from their owners and were featured in many events.
Head coach Kim “Sharp” Eun-joong, 44, was also busy. He had a meal with the president of the Korean Football Association, Chung Mong-kyu, and was encouraged by many media interviews, but he also watched K League games and tried to stay on track.
On June 20, he watched the second A match between the A team and El Salvador at the Daejeon World Cup Cup Stadium. The entire U-20 team was on hand to receive cheers from the crowd. It was a moment to recognize their achievements in the quarterfinals.
Arsenal is the team he would play for if he could qualify for Europe
The game against El Salvador ended in a 1-1 draw. After four matches under Jürgen Klinsmann, the Gunners have started with a number of new faces, especially against Peru and El Salvador.
In a recent interview with Sporting News, Kim refrained from giving his assessment of the A team. Instead, he focused on the position he played during his playing days: forward. Kim scored 123 goals and provided 56 assists in 444 games across the first and second divisions of the K League. Even if you exclude his time with Daejeon Citizen in the 2014 K League 2 (second division), he has 120 goals and 55 assists, making him a member of the so-called 50 (goals)-50 (assists) club.
Kim received many congratulatory texts from Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur), Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton), and Kim Min-jae (Napoli) after the quarterfinals. Kim has a strong connection with the players, as he was an assistant coach to Kim Hak-beom at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang.
Son Heung-min, the all-around attacker, is also a subject of study for Kim. While many coaches evaluate him, Kim’s view is more convincing because he was a striker himself.
“I think his most obvious weapon is that he uses both his left and right feet, so it’s really difficult for defenses to stop him. When you use one main foot, you have to strategically set up a little bit of direction to the opposite side, but when you have a player like (Son) Heung-min, it’s very difficult to defend because he can use both his left and right feet freely.”
Defenders also cite Son’s use of both feet as a challenge. Kim attributes it to hard work.
“I think he’s one of the hardest strikers to defend because his shooting accuracy is so high, so I think he’s one of the hardest strikers to defend. I also tried a lot of hard work and confidence in this area when I was active, but in the case of (Son) Heung-min, his left foot and right foot are so accurate, so it’s more a result of hard work than natural ability. There are parts of shooting that have a good feel for shooting, but it comes more from repetitive training. You have to have a sense, so when you have a chance to shoot from any position, you just hit it with a feeling.”
If Kim were still playing and the door to Europe was open, which team would he play for or against Son Heung-min? Kim’s first choice would be Tottenham Hotspur’s North London rivals, Arsenal. His reasons were clear.
“I’d love to play 안전놀이터 for Arsenal,” he says, “I’ve loved it since Arsène Wenger was in charge. FC Barcelona and other teams like that, they just play tiki-taka, but with Arsenal, they play with passing, but sometimes they have really fast attacks and dynamic speed. They have a certain team color, so I like Arsenal.”
Kim will be under pressure from Tottenham fans, who have made the Gunners a national team thanks to the play of Son ‘Camptin’ Heung-min. Kim points out that Arsenal, at least in the past, have performed much better than Tottenham, and that their second-place finish this season was due to the fact that they had a clear team color.
Arsenal’s upset title loss to Man City was due to ‘striker difference’
So, hypothetically, what would have happened if Kim had played for Arsenal, a team that spent most of the season in first place before slipping to second place after a last-minute upset by Manchester City.
“I think Arsenal didn’t win the title this season because they didn’t have a central player (striker). It’s the difference between having a striker and not having a striker. A striker has the ability to create goals from any position, and that’s the most important part of winning or losing a team. Look at Tottenham. They have the best attacking talent in the league, because they have Heung-min and Harry Kane, but they don’t have a world-class player at the back. If you have a back four that’s heavy, you’re going to win titles.”
How many goals does a team need to score in a season to win the title?
“If you’re Arsenal, you need to score around 20 goals, so you’re looking at the title. I’m also watching Mikel Arteta’s football, but I think Bangor’s football has a bit more pace. The most important thing is how the manager shows his colors and his philosophy, and of course, Arteta has a clear philosophy and a clear direction, so I’m watching him more closely.”
If Kim had the opportunity to manage a European club team now, he would still choose Arsenal.
“I’ve traveled to London and watched the Arsenal-Chelsea game, and I’ve loved it since I was a kid, so it’s a dream, but if I was in charge of Arsenal and I had my way with the players, I’d start with Jeling Holland (Manchester City), and then I’d bring in (Kim) Min-jae to play in the defense. I’d also bring in (Son) Heung-min, but it’d be a mess.”
From a striker’s perspective, it can be frustrating to score a goal and lose a game due to a defensive mistake. However, soccer is a team sport. There was a time when “all defense, all attack” total soccer worked, and there was a time when pass-centric soccer ruled the world.
“Soccer is an 11-player game, so it’s hard for a team to win with one or two players, whereas in other sports you can get by with one or two players, like in basketball, where the difference between having Michael Jordan and not having Michael Jordan in the NBA used to be the difference between the Chicago Bulls winning the championship, but not in soccer.”
So, what are the skills a striker should have? Kim sees it as important to be able to get into scoring positions.
“I think the most important thing for a striker is to be able to get into a position to score, so that I can anticipate, react, and think ahead, so that I can get into a certain position and try to score, and I think that’s the most important thing, because I can score a goal or create a goal, or I can create a goal for my side, so I think that’s the first thing, and I think that’s what Man City is like, because Holland is the main goal scorer, but the players around him are also scoring a lot.”
Of course, in modern soccer, strikers need to be good at scoring goals, but they also need to be able to kick from set pieces and occasionally make sharp passes like a playmaker. They also need to be able to compete for aerial balls – in short, they need to look like a superstar – but Kim’s perspective is clear.
“I think a striker should be good at headers and other abilities are important, but the ability to score goals should be innate. Holland, Kane. Robert Lewandowski, Kane can take free kicks, but that’s an option, the important thing is the ability to score.”
Hwang Ui-jo, Cho Kyu-sung, Oh Hyun-gyu, and Lee Young-joon…so many unique strikers to choose from!
So, can Lee Young-joon (Gimcheon Commerce) enter the lineage of Korean soccer strikers? First, he’ll have to overcome the personalities of Oh Hyun-gyu, Cho Kyu-sung, and Hwang Eui-jo in the A team. What is Kim’s impression of the three strikers?
“I think (Lee) Young-joon is also competitive as the next striker, and of course, Oh Hyun-gyu is a player who has grown a step further by going to Europe. (Oh) Hyun-gyu and (Cho) Kyu-sung are both the next Korean strikers after (Hwang) Ui-jo, and now you can include Lee Young-joon. In fact, we haven’t had many strikers besides (Hwang) Ui-jo recently, so now we have four players at once, so if they win the competition anyway, I think they will grow into the No. 1 striker representing Korea.”
While he was cautious in his individual assessment, he was equally supportive of the striker.
“(Hwang’s) original club is Nottingham Forest, so he’s going back, and I think physicality is a big part of strikers in Europe, and the opposing center backs are the most physical in every team, so it’s going to be a lot of bumping and fighting with them, but he had a good season at Girondins Bordeaux, so I think it’ll be good if he adapts well, and he has a good sense of scoring goals. Oh Hyun-gyu has also improved a lot, and even if he doesn’t score goals for the national team, he shows a lot of determination and greed. Next season is a new coach, so we have to compete, but I think the potential is huge. When I watch him play, I feel alive, and I can see his strong determination to score goals. If he keeps playing and gaining experience, I think he has a lot of potential to improve in the future.” 토토사이트순위
Unlike Hwang Eui-jo and Oh Hyun-gyu, who have experience in Europe, Cho Kyu-sung has shown potential as a star born from the World Cup. Cho is also determined to go to Europe.
“When you go to a new team, you don’t have a place for yourself, and when you go to Europe, it takes a lot more effort, challenge, and patience than in Korea. You have to endure and play a lot of games. If you don’t play, you can forget a lot of things, so it’s really important to play.
It’s interesting for Korean soccer to see strikers with different playing styles. It allows for different tactics and strategies.
“They have their own colors, and I think (Hwang) Eui-jo is more experienced, so he’s more seasoned when it comes to running the game and scoring goals, and (Cho) Kyu-sung and (Oh) Hyun-gyu are still young, so they have a lot of energy in terms of physicality and activity. I hope that when they get called up to the A team, they can learn from each other, especially Eui-jo’s shooting timing, because they’re the ones who will lead Korean football in the future, and I hope they can incorporate the strengths of their seniors.”
With the praise, worries, and advice of his juniors behind him, it’s time to start designing the Kim Eun-jung of the future. Kim doesn’t think he’s ready for that yet.
“First of all, I have to look back from the U-20 World Cup. (My next plan) will change a bit depending on the team. If I stay in the KFA and take charge of a team in a certain position, I have to prepare the colors for that team. If I go to a professional team, I have to prepare the team for the professional team.” (Does he feel confident to take charge of the age-group national team again?) “I don’t know, but it’s true that it’s not easy. Of course, I’m always up for a challenge, I don’t know how it’s going to be, but it’s not easy. But I’m thankful that (the public) gave us a lot of attention and a lot of support at the World Cup, and even though our players have gone back to their respective teams, I’m asking them to support us so that we can play a lot of games, and when we do play, I hope they’ll give us encouragement, support, and attention.”