football-coach
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| ▲ Jurgen Klinsmann, head coach of the South Korean men's national football team, speaks to reporters before a training session at Gudeok Stadium in the southeastern city of Busan on June 12, 2023. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ Jurgen Klinsmann (C), head coach of the South Korean men's national football team, speaks to reporters before a training session at Gudeok Stadium in the southeastern city of Busan on June 12, 2023. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ Jurgen Klinsmann, head coach of the South Korean men's national football team, prepares for a scrum with reporters before a training session at Gudeok Stadium in the southeastern city of Busan on June 12, 2023. (Yonhap) |
football-coach
Klinsmann wants players to show desire to win Asian Cup
By Yoo Jee-ho
SEOUL, June 12 (Yonhap) -- When South Korean players take the field for two friendly matches this month, head coach Jurgen Klinsmann wants to see outward display of emotion.
Namely, the bench boss wants his players to tell him, with their action, that they would like to represent the country at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup next year in Qatar.
"We want to see that the players really express themselves and show their personality, and show 'I want to go to Qatar,'" Klinsmann told reporters at Gudeok Stadium in Busan, the southeastern port city where South Korea will host Peru on Friday night. They will then move up north to Daejeon for another match against El Salvador on June 20.
These will be the first matches since late March, when South Korea had a 2-2 draw against Colombia and took a 2-1 loss against Uruguay. Klinsmann, who took over South Korea in February, will be pursuing his first win here.
"We want to see how badly they want to go to Qatar, how much they can show us coaches that they try really hard and show their best," Klinsmann added. "They can make mistakes, no problem. We want to build on the excitement we had in the first two games against Colombia and Uruguay. And obviously, we want to win the games, too. I want them to show us coaches and media that they badly, badly, badly want to win the Asian Cup."
Since Day 1 on the job, Klinsmann has stressed that his immediate goal is to win the Asian Cup in January 2024. South Korea's last title at the continental tournament came in 1960.
Between now and early next year, the makeup of the national team can change dramatically, Klinsmann said. He may even give 20-year-old youngsters a long look, on the heels of South Korea's run to the semifinals at the FIFA U-20 World Cup that concluded in Argentina early Monday in Korean time.
South Korea lost to Israel 3-1 in the third-place match, but Klinsmann still praised the squad for their "wonderful success." Klinsmann also let on that there were "a few players we really, really liked" on the U-20 national team, without naming names.
"I just spoke to the players here that our national team is always evolving. The face is always changing," he said. "The younger ones who played in Argentina, we will watch them very closely. We're very proud of them. The national team program always looks for what happens in a year, in a couple of years. We'll see who's ready for Qatar."
The U-20 team earned particular praise for making a deep run despite lacking a star. Very few players on that squad had been playing regular minutes on their respective clubs before the competition, and Klinsmann said it is now important for the U-20 players to return to their teams and earn more playing time.
"The most important thing for U-20 players is that they come back here and they play. They need to play in their club teams," he said, also noting that from the 2019 U-20 national team that finished runners-up at the U-20 World Cup, only Lee Kang-in has developed into a regular on the senior team.
"That's not enough. We need more players getting a chance to play in the league and to grow," Klinsmann added. "You can only grow when you play. You can't grow when you sit on the bench.
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