Hey everyone, Tim here. The clock has just struck midnight in the Eastern Time Zone and at the real Tavern out on the East Coast of the United States, and this is the first Tavern post of 2016! We live to see another year. So what’s ahead in 2016?
- AFC U-23 Championships aka qualifiers for Rio Olympics (January)
- Women’s Olympic Qualifying (February-March)
- World Cup Qualifying – Conclusion of Round 2 (March)
- 2016 Rio Olympics! Here’s hoping that we can send both the men and women to Brazil… (August)
- World Cup Qualifying – Beginning of Round 3, should we qualify, and we should (September-October-November)
- 2016 U-19 Asian Cup … Preparation for 2017 U-20 World Cup, which Korea hosts (October)
- 2016 U-20 Women’s World Cup Papua New Guinea (November-December)
- The usual (K League, AFC CL, KPA News) and all the surprises, the predictable and the unpredictable, we’ve got it all covered at the Tavern!
So from all of us here at the Tavern of the Taeguk Warriors, Happy New Year! May it be full of happiness, prosperity and football! Keep following the Tavern and saehaebok mani badeusaeyo!
I have been watching Korean footballers for the last thirty years and there have been a tremendous evolution in our ability to compete on the world stage. In the past, our players were outclassed in physical stature, stamina, technical ability, and fitness. Lot of it was attributed to lack of funding, poor nutrition, and limited opportunity for developement.
Watching our players in Europe currently especially in Bundesliga and EPL, I think we are there in terms of fitness, technical ability, and stamina. Ki, Chungy, and Son regularly prove that we have players that can compete with the best. One missing ingredient? Physicality. We need to develope next generation of Korean footballers with some bulk and power. If we get some kids that don’t get pushed around.
Yeah, I definitely think that this is a disadvantage that we simply seem to have. I read somewhere about some KPA working doubly hard in the gym on weights to bulk up in size and his teammates never understand why he was always doing more weight training for lesser results.
Suk’s done well however in a fairly physical Portuguese league. Hopefully he can mark a beginning of KNT players with a bit more physicality.