Football Association President Chung Mong-kyu recalls ‘Asian Cup debacle’

“Klinsmann is a coach with conviction”

Chung Mong-kyu, president of the Korea Football Association (KFA), has written a memoir in which he recalls the events of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar in January.

Chung published an essay titled “The Age of Football” on Jan. 25, reflecting on his 30-year soccer career. The autobiography was released amid calls for his resignation over the controversial appointment of Hong Myung-bo as national team coach.

Chung, who met with the team in Qatar during the Asian Cup in January, said the book is about learning lessons from the Asian Cup debacle.

South Korea, led by Klinsmann, had lost to Jordan in the semifinals of the last Asian Cup due to a team squabble on the eve of the match.

“There will be ups and downs and sensitive things that will happen because there are more than 50 young men with a lot of energy,” Chung said before the game, adding, ”There will be things that annoy you and things that you don’t like, but if you respect each other and encourage and support each other, good results will come.”

“You need to trust that the player next to you can cover your deficiencies and prevent your mistakes,” he said, emphasizing that ”we can only be a team if everyone, not only the players but also the staff, is united and shows a restrained and mature attitude without expressing their feelings or emotions.”

Chung admits that he was puzzled by the helpless defeat against Jordan and only later realized what had happened.

South Korea lost the Asian Cup, and Klinsmann was fired for his part in the failure.

Chung is no exception to the blame, as he has been criticized for making arbitrary decisions without a clear process in the selection of Klinsmann.

At the time of Klinsmann’s firing, Zheng explained that he “followed the same process that I used to appoint (his predecessor) Paulo Bento,” but the controversy was not fully resolved when Klinsmann himself revealed that Zheng had contacted him first.

Nevertheless, in his memoirs, Chung wrote that “domestic fans and people seem to expect a fatherly or teacher-like leadership from the national team coach.”

“Coach Klinsmann had a firm conviction that the players should be professionals in their own right,” he wrote, adding, ”I think he tried to give 토토사이트 추천 them as much freedom as possible in terms of their daily life, activities in the hostel, and meal times.”

“The Asian Cup debacle made me realize the delicate relationship between creativity and team spirit (cooperation), which is the most important aspect of soccer,” Jung said.

Creativity thrives when individual autonomy is emphasized, while team spirit may require a certain amount of team discipline. The two have an inverse relationship, he explained.

He pointed out that players like Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in wouldn’t be where they are today if they had continued to grow up in Korea, but the sense of cooperation, consideration, and respect that goes into creating a one-man team is another matter.

He disagreed with the “lowest common denominator” criticism of Lee Kang-in, arguing that harmonizing generations is a challenge not only for soccer, but for all of society.

“A team composed of only famous players and good players does not necessarily perform well,” he said, concluding, ”It is important to develop talent, but we must study more deeply how to become a team.”

The memoir confirms that Chung is defensive about Klinsmann, who was the cause of the Asian Cup debacle and the most criticized by the public at the time.

And the public continues to criticize Klinsmann for repeating the same path without progress and improvement despite having experienced failure under him.

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