S Korea football-performance
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| ▲ South Korean players react to a 1-1 draw against El Salvador in the teams' friendly football match at Daejeon World Cup Stadium in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 20, 2023. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ South Korea head coach Jurgen Klinsmann watches his players against El Salvador during the teams' friendly football match at Daejeon World Cup Stadium in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 20, 2023. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ Lee Kang-in of South Korea reacts to a missed scoring opportunity against El Salvador during the teams' friendly football match at Daejeon World Cup Stadium in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 20, 2023. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ Cho Gue-sung of South Korea (L) takes a shot against El Salvador during the teams' friendly football match at Daejeon World Cup Stadium in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 20, 2023. (Yonhap) |
S Korea football-performance
Colorless S. Korea lack delicate touch vs. El Salvador
By Yoo Jee-ho
DAEJEON, June 20 (Yonhap) -- By all accounts, this was a match South Korea should have won with relative ease.
Instead, despite dominating ball possession and shot count against 75th-ranked El Salvador, No. 27 South Korea only walked away with a 1-1 draw on a cool and rainy Tuesday night in Daejeon.
South Korea won the possession battle 74-26 and had 16 shot attempts, twice as many as their opponents. But only one of them found the back of the net, as Hwang Ui-jo, subbed in to begin the second half, scored in the 49th minute.
South Korea kept pushing and pushing for the next goal that never came, and Alex Roldan headed in a free kick in the 87th minute to secure a hard-fought draw for the visitors at Daejeon World Cup Stadium.
"I wish we'd have scored the second goal right after the first one. Then the game would have been over," Klinsmann said afterward. "We could have scored four, five or six, but we did not. They equalized at the end with a set piece. A bit angry about it."
To their credit, South Koreans came out with a bit more juice and competed with a better tempo than they had in a 1-0 loss to Peru last Friday. El Salvador were reeling from a 6-0 loss to Japan last week, but Klinsmann had warned his charges that they shouldn't take the Central Americans lightly. For most of the match, at least, South Korean players showed they were taking their opponents seriously.
The inability to finish around the net and the lack of a delicate touch have been chronic illnesses for South Korea that even Klinsmann, himself a legendary goal scorer for Germany, hasn't been able to cure.
The coach didn't have an immediate solution on his mind, either.
"If you don't score the goals right now, then you have to work even harder and believe in yourself, and then you will score the goals in the near future time," he said. "You've got to just give them a hug, pat them on the shoulders and say, 'Here comes the next chance.' It's very frustrating, because I lived that myself. But there's nothing you can do besides working, working, working."
As South Korea made a hard push for the second goal, Klinsmann made a series of attack-minded substitutions. Son Heung-min, who'd missed the Peru match while recovering from a sports hernia surgery, subbed in for Hwang Hee-chan in the 70th minute. New faces Hong Hyun-seok and Park Kyu-hyun also came off the bench in the second half, and they didn't mess around, with their aggressive forays into the opposing zone to create chances.
Then a momentary lapse in concentration on Jairo Henriquez's free kick allowed Roldan to earn the equalizer.
After four matches under Klinsmann, South Korea have netted four goals and conceded six goals.
The sample size is still small, and the squad was rather compromised this month due to injuries and other circumstances. But it remains unclear exactly what this team is about strategically and tactically under Klinsmann.
The German coach had faced question marks on his perceived lack of tactical acumen in his previous coaching stops. He may be less of a tactical genius and more of a motivator on the bench.
To his credit, Klinsmann has separated himself from his predecessor, Paulo Bento, in at least one regard. He has not shied from using two strikers up front, with any combination of his three strikers, Hwang Ui-jo, Cho Gue-sung and Oh Hyeon-gyu, seeing time together.
Klinsmann said he is trying to prepare South Korea for next year's Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup, where his team will likely meet opponents who will set up low blocks and play defense for 90 minutes if that's what it takes to beat South Korea.
"If only one striker plays, then only one can score. And we need goals," the coach said. "When we play against teams that play so deep and so defensive, I think we can risk it to play Sonny even as a midfielder behind two strikers. It's definitely something we'll look at."
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