What's Next for the Taegeuk Warriors?
Words by the Taegeuk Tavern Crew. Edited by Michael Welch.
What a run it was. A tearful ending, with a predictable 4-1 loss to tournament favorites Brazil, and a farewell to Paulo Bento too.
The news that Paulo Bento decided not to renew his contract with the KFA brings fresh questions about who will be the next KNT manager. More importantly though, it drove the conversation amongst our Tavern crew into an retrospective look at the Paulo Bento era.
To start, always funny and frequently full of insightful questions, Gordon Kim starts us off with some real pros and cons for Paulo Bento :
Pros:
1. Generational change in the way that our team plays; similar to how Hiddink changed the mentality of our 2002 players.
2. Bento’s vision and intent was clear. More importantly, he stuck to his plan. We showed the world that our team can be the team who controls the pace and overall play of a match, regardless of the opponent’s talent level.
3. Bento increased not only his marketability to European clubs/national teams with what most people would consider a successful tour in Korea, but also the job as Korea National Team manager looks more attractive to potential successors.
Cons
1. Stubbornness in his player selection probably led to missed opportunities to identify other players who could have helped the team further, such as not selecting Lee Kangin earlier, which led to Kangin not being able to effect the matches in Qatar more.
2. His lack of flexibility in tactics. At some points, he seemed to not even have a Plan B, or he would switch the tactics/players far too late to make an actual difference. We clearly didn’t have better players than most of our opponents so it would have been nice to tailor some of his tactics to account for the gap in skill.
3. His build up play definitely was legitimate but the gaps in defense were easily identified by our opponents, including Asian Football Confederation national teams in qualifying.
The ever-analytical Namu Yoon, who watched every Taegeuk Warriors match with a notebook to write down key plays from each of our players, gave Paulo Bento a 4 for the Brazil match tactics. What he said will certainly bring up parallels with Paulo Bento’s entire time as manager of the squad.
Poor game overall, despite starting the 11 guys we expected. Starting Lee Jaesung at RM was a mistake, as it was in the match with Portugal, with his defensive skills nearly completely wasted, while he produced zero offense to add. This was compounded by starting Inbeom at CM, which gave him too much defensive responsibilities that Jaesung should have taken on instead, and by starting Son as second striker, which truly doesn't make use of Son's strengths at all. This also resulted in our midfield being completely overrun, as we had 2 STs who weren't helping out the midfield with much defense at all. Bento corrected his mistakes somewhat in the second half by shifting Jaesung to CAM, and pushing Son to LM, where they instantly looked better. But, Inbeom still had his defensive responsibilities, while Heechan was shuttered over to RM. This meant that he could not cut in from the right flank at all (just not his strength), a huge loss considering Heechan at LM generated our most dangerous first half shot after cutting in off the left flank. Finally, when Paik Seungho and Son Junho came on and did so well in the 2nd half, that made me question why we saw so little of them in the group stages. For the match overall, persisting with the high presses when it clearly wasn't working was a significant tactical error from Bento. Overall, his 4-year tenure was a success highlighted by consistency and resoluteness, but this was a poor performance from him without a doubt.
With the Taegeuk Warriors done in Qatar, we also get a chance to read the tournament closing thoughts of Kevin Kim. When the Tavern covered the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, Kevin also shared his thoughts as Korea exited Group F in third place with a victory over Germany. Kevin wraps up the Taegeuk Warriors run in Qatar, with his opinions of Paulo Bento, as only he can :
With the close of the Round of 16 comes the conclusion to Korea’s World Cup run. From a macro perspective, it was a success — Korea qualified out of their group. The results came just as everyone expected, and the drama of Hwang Heechan’s game-winner against Portugal, of all teams, put some extra gloss on what otherwise would have been a repeat of Korea’s last couple of early exits at the World Cup.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Paulo Bento, our national team staff, and most definitely our boys, deserve nothing but plaudits for their achievement down to the very final game versus Brazil. Sonny didn’t get his World Cup goal, but certainly exhibited his ability for Heechan’s winner. Minjae delivered alongside Younggwon in the back, and our midfield held its nerve as we amassed 4 points in a group play against Uruguay, Ghana, and Portugal.
Overall, our mentality was admirable. Pretty boy Cho Guesung encapsulated this best; our domestic-based striker swapped in for the ice-cold Hwang Uijo, and took his chance with two massive headers against Ghana to equalize 2–2 and bring Korea to a stressful, nervy, yet quintessentially Korean finish.
To see a spell of dominant attacking football from Korea at a World Cup had been unprecedented up to that point. Rather, the football we played when pressing for a goal against Ghana had been otherwise reserved for Asian showcases where Korea would be playing inter-continental competition. You see dominance against teams such as the United Arab Emirates or China. To watch it against Ghana for the last 20 minutes of that game was an encouraging sign of Korean football development over the last four years with Bento.
Hwang Inbeom may have nightmares about the Brazil match, but he can hold his head up high considering the rest of his performances. He did not shy from the responsibility of composing our midfield, and that responsibility shared with Lee Jaesung and later Lee Kangin gave a lot for Korean football supporters to look forward to. Even Paik’s missile of a consolation goal reminds us of an option that could potentially answer our defensive midfield pain point.
Yet over the last four years, as fans cried for fullback options, we didn’t receive those, and we were punished for it. Kim Jinsu and Kim Moonhwan put in a shift and they should be applauded for their efforts, but to mention their shortcomings offensively and defensively isn’t exactly a condemnation of them as players. Korea were often exposed on the wing in our final third, and we conceded three goals in three separate games where a failed tackle from a fullback led to a cutback ball that was turned into the net, specifically by Mohammed Kudus, Ricardo Horta, and Vinicius Junior.
Regardless, this is Korea, and we should be proud of our progression into knock-out play for the first time in three World Cup cycles. While 2014 was an embarrassment, 2018 a fluke victory that saved face from a repeat performance, 2022 seemed to take lessons from the two, where we displayed a nerve worthy of qualifying out of group play. Even against Brazil, we tried to fight with that spirit, but it became suicidal as we tried to attack, then leave space for Brazil to capitalize again and again. And again. And again.
Our shortcomings were clear, as they had been prior to Bento’s appointment, but our quality, aggression, and nerve is what eventually pushed us beyond just a game to a tournament run to remember. As Korean football fans, its moments like these we live for. For Korean football, it’s progress that we can build as we look towards 2026.
Korea, fighting.
Today, the Taegeuk Warriors returned home to Korea to a crowd of screaming, jubilant fans, rather than the Yeot candy shower (not a good thing) they got on their return from Russia.
With news that there’s a manager search going on, I wanted to share thoughts on what we learned during the Bento era and what needs to be improved upon.
First of all, we clearly learned from Bento that we can play attractive, modern, and possession-based football. We can play on the front foot and gain a dominance in midfield through grit and smart positioning. We can organize our defensive shape to stifle the options of an elite team and keep them away from our penalty area. Witnessing our first half attacks against Uruguay and Ghana were clear evidence of Bento’s success.
Finally, it was pretty amazing to see that we could also play out the back. There’s this hilarious Twitter account called When Playing It Out of the Back Goes Wrong. We did not feature in any of their clips this World Cup, with goalkeeper Kim Seunggyu marshalling the back line with confidence, even able to maneuver away from pressure, and his centerbacks Kim Minjae and Kim Younggwon making themselves available at the right angles to begin play.
However, like Kevin said, it’s the fullbacks brother. Or like Gordon pointed out, the defense still needs work. Over our next World Cup qualifying cycle, only Kim Minjae figures to be a mainstay. Kim Younggwon is 32, as is Hong Chul. Kim Jinsu is 30 and his injury history is quite long, so don’t expect that to magically improve as he gets older. At least our rightbacks are younger, with Yoon Jonggyu 24 and Kim Moonhwan 27 (although third-choice Kim Taehwan is 33). I just hope that over the next four years, they can improve their defense to match their clear offensive skills.
If anything, the defensive woes in Qatar point to Bento’s resistance to explore the player pool. Look at this tweet from Namu; the lineups didn’t change much.
Actually, there’s one name I see there that I’m going to say will need to be replaced immediately. The older Jung Wooyoung’s time as our central defensive midfielder needs to be over. He’s 32 and I’m personally tired off seeing him have trouble tracking a runner into the box who inevitably scores. Look at the Paqueta goal, it’s Jung who is desperately late in sliding over for the block. Yes, Jung was an incredible tactical fouler and tackler over these past four years with Bento, but he’s run out of gas. In Qatar, he just couldn’t keep up with the speed of tracking dangerous runs.
With Bento, we achieved something we hadn’t done in 12 years, and we qualified for the knockout stages of the World Cup. But for me at least, there’s one question that still hangs over the tournament : could it have been more? What if Bento had been willing to start Lee Kangin from the beginning, instead of sticking so tightly to Lee Jaesung in his midfield? What if Lee Kangin could have unlocked Uruguay’s defense just once to produce a victory? What if Cho Guesung could have buried the golden chance that Hwang Uijo skied? Those 3 points could have been the ticket to an easier Round of 16 matchup with Switzerland. Seriously, what if it were our Taegeuk Warriors who were preparing to take on Morocco?
The what-ifs, though, lead us straight back to the search we’re undertaking. Can we find a manager who will experiment with more players yet continue upon Bento’s successful tactical revolution? In the next two years, the Korean national teams will play the Asian Cup (another fun trip to Qatar when they decide to schedule the tournament), Asian Games (military exemptions on the line), the Paris Olympics (ditto), and begin a journey around Asia to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Writing about what can improve reminds us all that we’ve just achieved something great. It’s natural to want more. It’s also imperative to ask how we can get it.
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