More post-match thoughts

Think of the words “shameful” “pathetic” and “disgrace.” Think of a word 99999 times stronger. And that is not even enough to describe how bad the majority of the team was on the pitch. Post match, the Lebanon coach publicly insulted CKH saying CKH had had no sense of the basics of modern football. That the opposing coach could even dare to say that gives you an idea of how bad it was.

Well I missed the first half due to “mandatory graduation practice” but I as I read through the Bigsoccer Korea match thread and our posters’ reactions my heart sank immediately. Another pathetic display against an Asian minnow team.

The starting lineup was:

Jung SR; Kim CW, Kwak TH, Kim KH, Shin KH; Han KY, Kim NI; Lee KH, Kim BK, Lee CY; Lee DG

During graduation practice I saw the lineup and I would have facepalmed repeatedly, but I was pretty pumped about Han Kook Young’s inclusion so I didn’t make a spectacle out of myself.

There are still, of course, a couple things wrong with this lineup.

1. Kwak Tae Hwi’s inclusion means extreme defensive liability and no leadership at all. Same with Shin Kwang Hoon and Kim Chi Woo who both are known to be defensively suspect fullbacks. Kim Kee Hee is decent but is not on the level of Jang Hyun Soo and Kim Young Kwon, as the Olympics Qualifying proved (Kim KH was Jang’s replacement after Jang got injured).

2. The CM pair are BOTH destroyers, and no creative player aside from the #10 KBK a position that’s supposed to be creative. Illogical choice.

3. Lee Dong Gook. Why. We have a striker who scored 5 goals in half a season and a striker who scored twelve goals the entire season. And here we are playing a 34 year old Premier League flop (as in he couldn’t score a single goal) who has an odd habit of just standing there not even moving and squandering easy chances. It is, however, logical to play LDG against bunkering Asian minnows, but as we found out Lebanon did not bunker as expected.

The first thing that popped up on Bigsoccer was a lot of Caps lock and swearing about how Kwak Tae Hwi made a costly error that almost led to a goal. Another “heart attack moment every time the opponent attacks.” And how right away Lee Dong Gook squandered a sitter.

Skimmilk described it as:

“Our back four crash into each other comically leaving the ball rolling around in the penalty box before JSR recovers.

Then long ball to LDG and the two Lebanese defenders fall over but LDG shoots right at GK”

And not long after, Lebanon scores. Early. Murderous thoughts are spreading throughout the thread. Culprit? Lack of defense as usual. The defense led to a couple hundred posts of “I will kill something,” “wtf,” “ and other murderous or vehemently angry thoughts during the first half. Thank goodness I did not witness the early first half.

I do not understand. Why does CKH insist on doing the same thing that DOESN’T WORK every single game? I’m literally raging about the exact same things I’ve been raging about a year ago. The lineups are still crap; and CKH knows that is not our full strength because we’ve fielded teams that felled much stronger opponents before.

Shin Kwang Hoon was shockingly poor especially in the first half, as three rapid miscontrols in a row again nearly led to defensive meltdown. For the entire first half the defense was extremely nervous and shaky. The typical diving of middle eastern teams did not help either. Lee Dong Gook then decides he suddenly learned how to take freekicks and blasted one… into the wall. He took another one but the cross went straight into the arms of the Lebanon keeper. Like usual, LDG just STOOD THERE for large patches of the game, not moving or trying to get into good positions.

Meanwhile, Lee Chung Yong steps up and decides to perform like a decent footballer. He dribbles past a horde of Lebanese defenders with incredible pace and serves it to Lee Dong Gook on a platter… only for Lee Dong Gook to miss the goal. Easy EASY opportunity squandered. As he’s done in the past like 10 games.

Repeat this process 3 more times. But on the 2nd time LDG doesn’t even shoot even though he’s one on one. Yep. LDG was THAT bad. To the point where people are wondering how he became a professional soccer player in the first place.

Not to say LDG was the worst player on the pitch; the defenders were far worse as LDG did link up play somewhat. But that’s expected from someone who stands there and doesn’t move.

Another thing of note from the first half is that Han Kook Young actually put in nice tackles and stole the ball once in a while. Good glimpses of his destroyer abilities. Now that I finally got my wish (Han Kook Young playing for the Senior level) my impression is this: he has potential and should be called up from now on – he is the only true DM on the team – but he’s not QUITE yet ready for regular starts. Very interesting option though.

The second half I watched live instead of relying on BigSoccer for updates.

And it was pretty much the same deal. Shin Kwang Hoon getting ripped to shreds by a LEBANESE winger. Lee Keun Ho and Lee Dong Gook still doing nothing. Lee Chung Yong tearing up the Lebanon defense but no one will cooperate.

Couple noteworthy things:

1. Cha Bum Kun was watching. He was not happy. At all

2. LDG squanders more easy chances and takes more crappy freekicks

3. We hit the post three times but that’s no excuse for the pathetic display

4. Words cannot even describe how bad we were.

5. Three Lebanese players were stretchered off the pitch, the entire LB team grassrolled like none other, oh and it took 4 mintues to put on two subs because someone grassrolling. Ridiculous.

6. I’m not even going to comment on CKH’s choice of substitutes.

Jae’s ratings are about right but they’re way too generous for me.

Jung Sung Ryong: 4

He didn’t have too much to do but he was indecisive and for some reason does not even communicate with the defense.

Kim Kee Hee: 3

Too easy to walk past, positioned poorly allowing way too many through balls

Kim Nam Il: 4

Sometimes he was okay. But a lot of times his passes went straight to the opposition and couldn’t drive forward at all

Kwak Tae Hwi: 2

Extremely slow and cumbersome. Straight up inept. Oh and he’s blind in one eye…

Shin Kwang Hoon: 1

Burned even more than Kwak Tae Hwi, miscontrolled everything, doesnt know how to cross, amateur performance

Kim Bo Kyung: 5

He was invisible for large patches of the game, but the Qatar midfield was congested and he did provide some good linkup at times.

Han Kookyoung: 4

Largely invisible as well but showed glimpses of his potential.

Lee Keun Ho: 3

He tried but he was ineffective and most of his attacks ended up in him getting dispossessed or occasionally winning a corner

Lee Chung Yong: 6

The only bright spot

Kim Chi Woo: 3.5

Terrible freekicks and does not seem to know how to defend, but he did provide the equalizer.

Lee Dong Gook: 1

Squandered chance after chance after chance. Never seen such a stationary player before…

Choi Kang Hee: 1

No tactics, no organization, dumb choices. Defies logic altogether. Every single aspect of football that is controlled by a manager was really poor.

Subs:

Son Heung Min: 4

He missed a tap in and was somewhat invisible although he did add some spark to the attack.

Kim Shin Wook: 3

Contributed just about nothing and walked around cluelessly.

Ji Dong Won: N/A

Completely invisible

I have a very bad feeling about the upcoming matches. We’ll have to hope home advantage helps us. But world cup teams are built in the three-two years of qualifying and experimental things are worked out during friendlies. For us no two games had the same lineup and the starting xi kept changing for the worse and we had no friendlies at all leading up to the WCQ matches. Our new coach (thank goodness CKH is leaving for sure after qualifiers) has literally a year to put together a squad and gel an actual full strength starting xi. My suggestion is to take the olympic squad adding Lee Chung Yong, Son Heung Min, original captain and best korean defender Hong Jeong Ho, and the injured players who couldnt make the Olympics and go from there. they’ve played with each other a lot and pretty much all our top NT talents were on the olympic squad anyway. I also highly highly recommend senol gunes to take the reigns after CKH resigns.