Coach Hong Myung-bo emphasizes 'competition within the team' 'Starting lineup' becomes difficult to predict
Coach Hong Myung-bo emphasizes 'competition within the team' 'Starting lineup' becomes difficult to predict
Blog Article
"It is difficult to determine the starting players until the day before the match."
On the 12th, two days before the 5th match of Group B in the 3rd round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 North and Central America World Cup against Kuwait, a national soccer team official mentioned the 'veiled starting lineup' while watching the players training at the Abdullah Al Khalifa Stadium.
The official said, "If you look at the training so far, you can roughly see the outline of the players who will be starting, but since Hong Myung-bo took over as coach, it has become difficult to predict."
After being appointed as the head coach of the national team in July, Coach Hong began training the Taegeuk Warriors in earnest through the first and second matches of the third round of qualifying for the North and Central American World Cup in September.
Coach Hong, who had a difficult first match with a 0-0 draw against Palestine, recorded his first victory with a 3-1 away win over Oman in the second match.
Then, in the 3rd and 4th matches of the 3rd World Cup qualifying round held in October, they defeated Jordan (2-0 win) and Iraq (3-2 win) in succession, enjoying the joy of 3 consecutive wins.
Meanwhile, coach Hong attempted to 'inject young blood' into the national team during the third round of the World Cup qualifiers.
Coach Hong's plan is to give players who can further develop their skills to the next two years until the World Cup finals.
In the first and second matches, Yang Min-hyeok (Gangwon), whose transfer to Tottenham (England) was confirmed, was selected, and in the third and fourth matches, Bae Jun-ho (Stoke City), Oh Se-hoon (Machida Zelvia), and Oh Hyeon-gyu (Genk) were called up to induce a 'new vs. old competition' in the attack line.
Bae Jun-ho recorded assists in two consecutive games, the 3rd and 4th, and Oh Se-hoon and Oh Hyeon-gyu both scored goals in the match against Iraq.
Coach Hong selected midfielder Lee Hyun-joo (Hannover) and 파워볼 fullback Lee Tae-seok (Pohang) for the 5th and 6th matches of the 3rd World Cup qualifying round, which consisted of two consecutive away matches in the Middle East, thereby creating 'internal competition' not only among the attacking line but also among the defending line.
As players with high growth potential were called up to the national team one after another, a fierce competition between the old and new players in each position naturally took place behind the scenes during training.
Because of this, it has become difficult for national team officials to predict who will be given the opportunity to be in the 'Best 11 Starting XI'.
Coach Hong strongly argued that this was a side effect of 'fixing starting players'.