South Korea’s national team manager Hong Myung-Bo has stated that the team needs the presence of a few older players in order to balance the experience ahead of the World Cup 2014. South Korea reached the knockout stage of the last World Cup in South Africa.
South Korea’s national team manager Hong Myung-Bo has stated that the team needs the presence of a few older players in order to balance the experience ahead of the World Cup 2014. South Korea reached the knockout stage of the last World Cup in South Africa.
They are expected to do if not better than that achievement. They have been grouped alongside the likes of Belgium, Algeria and Russia in the upcoming World Cup. Aside from Belgium, who are expected as one of the dark horses to win the tournament itself, other teams are beatable and South Korea could realistically aim for the knockout stages.
However, the national team is filled with youngsters, who do not have the experience of a major tournament. Hong Myung-Bo plans to solve this problem by including experienced players with the likes of Park Ji sung expected to top the list. The former Manchester United man is currently back in Dutch football with PSV Eindhoven – the club where he started his European adventure. He has stated that the career with the national team is over, but Myung-Bo plans to persuade him to return to international action for one final adventure.
Choi Kang-hee has also stepped down from his role as the captain. Hong was part of the Korean team that did well at the 2002 World Cup.
“We have a lot of young and talented players, but they lack international experience. My job is to try to address that in the coming months. Our core players are aged 22 to 25, and we will need older players for the World Cup to give our team some balance. It is not that bad of a draw for us, but we have to remember that there’s never an easy opponent. The focus of our preparation should be on trying to get to the next round,” said Hong.