A familiar foe
Heung-min and Co face Vietnam and ‘Korean Hiddink’
IF South Korea’s national football team a re to reach the final of the Asian Games and win an exemption from military service fo or their players, then they will have to get t past Vietnam and the “Korean Hiddink”.
Korean coach Park Hang-seo, a mem mber of Guus Hiddink’s coaching staff at th he 2002 World Cup when South Korea reached hd the semi-finals, is coaching Vietnam.
South Korea’s unlikely run to the semi-finals in 2002, in the World Cup they co-hosted with Japan, had millions of fans pouring onto the streets in cities across the country to celebrate victories.
Hang-seo’s success with Vietnam has sparked similar scenes in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and elsewhere when he took the national team to the final of Asia’s Under-23 championship in January. At the Asian Games in Indonesia, another Under-23 tournament, Vietnam’s so-called Golden Stars have reached the last four and once more fans at home are getting excited.
“Back then (in 2002) I was an assistant coach, but now I’m a head coach,” Hang-seo said after Vietnam’s quarter-final win over Syria set up a semi-final match against the South Koreans. “We stopped in the semi-finals in 2002. Buut now we’ll not stop in the semi-finals.”
The Asian Games semi-final gives Hang-seo a reunion with former KK-League coaching counterpart Kim Haak-bom, now leading South Korea’s Under-23s.
“I’ve known him since the K-League days and we’re sharing the same hotel,” Hang-seo said. “As you know, he is such a good tactician – he’s known as ‘(Alex) Ferguson of the K-League’.”
Hang-seo’s exploits with Vietnam, a perennial football underachiever in the region, have been followed closely in the Korean media.
“I really love my country, but now I’m head coach of the Vietnamese national team,” he said. “I’m having a good time with Vietnam and I’m enjoying my work.”
Now Hang-seo and his players stand in the way of Tottenham forward Son Heung-min and the Korean squad. Heung-min has been given leave from his Premier League club to take part in Indonesia as one of three overage players that each team is allowed.
The reason: The South Korean government rewards Asian Games gold medals and Olympic medals of any kind with an exemption from the compulsory 21-month military service. Failure to win a gold medal in Indonesia will likely mean that the 26-year-old Heung-min will have to return to South Korea within the next two years to perform his national duty.
He missed South Korea’s opener and went on as a replacement in a surprising group-stage loss to Malaysia, but scored in the deciding group game to ensure his team progressed to the knockouts.
The title defence was touch and go on Monday, with South Korea trailing 3-2 against Uzbekistan with 15 minutes of the quarter-final remaining.
Hwang Ui-jo, the tournament’s leading scorer, completed his hattrick to equalise at 3-3 and take the game into extra-time, and Hwang Heechan slotted home a penalty with two minutes remaining to send the South Koreans into the semi-finals.
Now Heung-min and teammates are in the position of having to beat a determined and disciplined Vietnam team coached by a man who knows Korean football extremely well.
The winner will progress to the final to face either Japan or the United Arab Emirates on Saturday. — AP