Olympic dream over for Junho
BAE Junho has missed out on a place in the Olympics as South Korea, without him, were beaten in the under23s Asian Cup quarter-finals on penalties. The 20-year-old forward stayed at Stoke City to play his part in trying to secure the club’s Championship status rather than head for a tournament in Qatar with his country, where the top three teams will qualify for Paris 2024.
It has undoubtedly been an important decision for Stoke. He came off the bench to inspire a 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday, then was superb from the off in a 3-0 win over Plymouth last weekend. They hope to seal their survival at Southampton today.
But his mates at South Korea, who breezed through the group stage with three wins out of three, were unexpectedly beaten by Indonesia in Doha. The match finished 2-2 after extra time and Indonesia won an incredible shootout 11-10.
It is a double blow for the Korean players because an Olympic medal is also an exemption from 20 months of national service, which has to start by the time any man reaches 28 - but does not have to completed all at once.
Joel Kim, avid South Korea watcher, explained on social media: “Korea missed the chance to make this our 10th Olympic appearance in a row. Hurts. Nevertheless, with the Olympics a failed endeavour, the next best opportunity for our players to get the exemption is the Asian Games, the next one being in 2026. We’ve won the last two so we have the track record experience, and frankly it is easier to win the tournament than the Olympics, although far from guaranteed.
“Many of our players like Bae Junho, Kim Min-woo, Hwang Jae-won, Kim Ji-soo and others, should make the cut-off while players like Jeong Sang-bin could be one of the overaged players.
“All’s not lost. Although it is painful. Let’s hope that there’s a silver lining to this in the form of Chung Mong-gyu forced out as well as a truly competent and effective senior national team head coach. And I hope this doesn’t dissuade overseas clubs from taking a chance on our players this summer.”
Another positive, on the Stoke side, is that Junho will be available through pre-season and at the start of 2024/25 rather than in Paris and he will finally get a proper break this summer after 14 months of continual action.
Steven Schumacher said at his pre-match press conference: “He’s done really well. It’s one of the reasons we’ve occasionally left Junho out of the line up. We have to be aware of the load that he’s been outputting. He’s been playing football non-stop. He hasn’t had much rest and he’s travelled to play for his international team.
“We have to be conscious of that. We don’t want to burn young players out. He’s obviously a big asset for us and to have him fresh and playing at the top level and his top potential is what we wall want.”