Hard work starts now for Korea’s football team

The feeling of relief is still in the air in Seoul after the national team squeezed into the 2018 World Cup last week. The goalless tie in Uzbekistan was an exercise in frustration but that was forgotten as the game ended.

As Syria failed to win in Iran, that was enough to send the Taeguk Warriors to a ninth successive appearance. The fact that the team had to rely on other results did not spoil the mood, not completely anyway.

There were some articles wondering whether the team had the right to be celebrating after an underwhelming set of performances. After all, Korea had won just four of the 10 games in Group A, not a record to get too excited about. Still, sometimes it is just about the journey. While it is best to qualify in style, the most important thing is to qualify.

Most in Korean football would like to put a line under the whole campaign but it is important that the lessons of the last two years are kept in mind. In all of the ten games, there was not one satisfactory performance.

That cost Uli Stielike his job as head coach in June. In came Shin Tae-yong with two games remaining. He needed four points to be sure, he got two but that turned out to be enough. And — despite rumors that came immediately to suggest that 2002 boss Guus Hiddink was interested in a return to Seoul — Shin has the job until the end of next summer’s tournament.

Shin quickly distanced himself from his two 0-0 ties.

“I admit that we focused on defense in the last two qualifiers since we didn’t want to concede a goal,” he said upon returning home. “But now I’m thinking about ways to overcome the world’s football powerhouses (at the World Cup), instead of just sitting back and defending against them.”

“We will prepare for the World Cup thoroughly,” he said. “I’m a man who likes to play attacking football. People will find out about South Korea’s true football power at the World Cup.”

There is a lot of work for Shin, who has experienced being in charge of the 2016 Olympic team and the 2017 Under-20 World Cup — two teams that promised so much in the early rounds but then fell a little short when it mattered.

The task for Shin is not just to turn the team into a potent attacking unit but also improve the team’s defensive organization. So will every other coach, and it is easier said than done.

There is plenty of time to get it right. The Korea FA has already confirmed that there will be four warm-up matches in October and November. The first will be a very interesting game, against 2018 host Russia in Moscow on October 7.

Three days later, the team moves to France to take on Tunisia. These will be very useful tests and there will be more. These games fall on official FIFA dates, which means that Shin will be able to call the European-based stars such as Son Heung-min.

This is just the beginning. It is going to be a very interesting nine months.