What football fans have to do first
It’s the baseball season. This year’s championship contests are in full swing in the United States Major League and the Korean Baseball Organization, among others.
Not to mention the Major League’s World Series (more accurately the U.S. Series), the Korean Series is also enjoying huge popularity amid roars from enthusiastic fans jam-packing the stadiums as usual.
The crowded ballparks raise the question: Which is the national sport of South Korea (as a ball game), compared to the “empty” football stadiums?
Since ancient times, Koreans used to play a sort of soccer, called “chuk-guk” similar to the present term “chuk-gu” (“chuk” means kick and “gu” ball). For average modern South Koreans, more often than not, soccer used to be the king of sports.
Recent polls show 41 percent of the people still enjoy football and 25 percent like baseball. Many people still regard soccer (I prefer this term because of the term: American football) as the top national sport despite its lower popularity than baseball.
For us, South Koreans, our national team’s defeat in major international competitions such as the World Cup is almost a national disaster, especially when losing to Japan, although the situation elsewhere in the world may be similar, particularly in Europe and Latin America.
Such a “national” sport in South Korea is now a target of public criticism because of the national squad’s poor performances over the past years.
The undisputed top subject for the public outcry is the manager or head coach. As for this job, a joke asks: “Which is the most difficult job of today in the Republic of Korea?”
A suggestive answer is the President or the head coach of the national football team. Why?
People are almost all self-claimed political analysts; and most soccer fans claim to be good commentators or coaches themselves. Probably, Korea’s presidents and football coaches might have something in common.
At the start of their new jobs, they enjoy the absolute support of the people but soon lose public confidence. And their fates have not been that good, as history has shown.
The present head coach, Shin Tae-yong, was employed in June as an “emergency reliever” for Uli Stielike of Germany who led the national squad for the past three years to the final Asian qualifying round for the 2018 Russia World Cup.
Earlier, the German coach — four months after he took the helm of the team — successfully led it to anchor safely. But he had no fate but to be fired as the team faced possible elimination from the race.
Against the earlier expectations of the people, Shin, dubbed “fox on the pitch,” failed to satisfy the fans with no wins but scoreless draws in the final two matches against Iran at home and Uzbekistan away.
However, the national team under Shin’s helm managed to qualify for the largest global football extravaganza as runner-up after Iran, though the fans were not that happy due to its poor play.
Adding salt to injury, it once again betrayed local fans in their successive losses in friendly matches against World Cup host Russia on Saturday and African frontrunner Morocco on Tuesday.
Yet, it’s too premature to be disappointed with Shin’s side. Surviving the tough competition, it got a ticket to Russia. Thus, South Korea joins the world powerhouses to appear in the World Cup for the ninth consecutive time, alongside Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina and Spain, qualifying for every tournament since 1986 in Mexico. We have to recognize this landmark achievement.
Regardless of the process, Shin made it. We still remember that our team was the first Asian Football Confederation member to ever reach the semifinals in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. There must be ups and downs in everything. Football is no exception.
Before denouncing Shin who took over the difficult job just four months ago — and his team — we need to think why our national team is losing its reputation as a dark horse in international competitions.
It is nonsense to talk about the re-employment of Guus Hiddink, 71, who led our team to the last four in the 2002 World Cup 15 years ago, as demanded by some radical fans, without giving enough time to Shin.
Head coach Joachim Low, 57, of the German national team, has been coaching the world’s No 1 side for 11 years since 2006. He should be a good model for South Korean football.
Fans lament that the national team has no trustworthy goal-getters like Christian Ronaldo of Portugal, Lionel Messi of Argentina or old boy Cha Bum-keun who played in the Bundesliga of Germany from 1978 to 1989.
The current pro-league K-Classic shows the reason. Top goal scorers in this year’s competition are mostly imports. Each team is too dependent on foreign players just to win easily without cultivating local attackers.
As the (dismissed) Stielike said earlier, the problem (with Korean football) is the way kids are taught, mostly at schools and universities. “They teach them to win. We have to teach them to play football.”
And the empty football stadiums testify to why the Korean football is going backward, while baseball is enjoying its heyday. Before blaming our players’ poor performance, we need to go to the stadiums and encourage them like the passionate fans of other countries in Europe and Latin Africa.