False Hope Is Making South Korean Football Sick
Before the match between South Africa and South Korea, media outlets and football commentators widely predicted that South Korea would have the upper hand.
In the end, those predictions amounted to nothing more than false hope dangled before the entire nation.
As in the previous match against Mexico, the players repeatedly lost possession after casually stringing together passes, while allowing counterattacks time and again.
They continually overhit inaccurate crosses, gradually lost the battle for possession and spent the rest of the match being pushed around. Eventually, they conceded a goal from a sudden attack. In a sense, it was entirely predictable.
Rather than blame defensive errors, the commentators covering the match were busy defending the team, insisting that such mistakes were understandable.
The only ones who looked truly heartbreaking were the Red Devils fans cheering on the team so passionately.
Watching them, one could hardly believe they were footballers representing South Korea. They looked careless and half-hearted throughout the match, and it was difficult to find any real strengths in their performance.
At times, they even seemed more concerned with looking the part than with the fundamentals of the game—accurate passing and ball control.
For the entire match, I could not see what, exactly, was supposed to make South Korea superior to South Africa.
They played with energy for only about the first 10 minutes of the first half. After that, they were on the back foot for most of the game and looked constantly vulnerable to sudden attacks.
Sports commentators should be willing to criticize what deserves criticism and point out what needs to be addressed. Instead, because the public enjoys patriotic hype, they keep insisting that South Korea is playing well, brushing off even disappointing and plainly poor performances as nothing more than minor mistakes.
This kind of relentlessly hopeful commentary and analysis may ultimately be one of the reasons South Korean football continues to grow weaker.
South Korean Football Thinks Too Slowly and Plays at a Slow Tempo
When football around the world is compared with the South Korean game, the biggest difference is tempo.
In the leading football nations, passes and shots follow almost immediately after a player receives the ball. South Korean players, by contrast, often play at a tempo that is one or two beats too slow.
In simple terms, a pass in top-level football may take 0.5 seconds, while a pass in South Korean football takes around three seconds. Why do they hold on to the ball and think for so long? Do they somehow enjoy having the ball at their feet? Or do they simply want more screen time?
Again and again, they receive the ball and only then start looking for someone to pass to. The result is a repeated cycle of losing possession.
Passing speed matters because it denies the opposition time to respond. It forces the other team to react to us and play on our terms.
South Korean football, on the other hand, gives opponents enough time to anticipate where the ball is going and adjust accordingly. That makes it impossible to control the game.
Put another way, players from other countries process the game like a supercomputer, with the speed of a modern CPU. South Korean players seem to operate with the processing power of an old Pentium. The difference in reaction speed is simply too great.
So is this difference in speed simply a result of being Korean? No.
Under Guus Hiddink, South Korea possessed the game-management and decision-making abilities needed to compete on equal terms with football powers such as Brazil and Germany.
They Do Not Understand the Basics Even a Child Knows
Even without Hiddink, anyone can understand the most basic requirement: South Korea urgently needs faster passing and stronger all-around ability in both attack and defense, including set pieces.
In a casual neighborhood friendly, players can take their time on the ball, look around, gesture to teammates and leisurely decide whether to join the attack. But it is hard to believe that players representing their country can produce such slow, lifeless and frustrating football despite receiving high salaries, extensive support and professional training.
South Korean football appears destined to disappoint the entire nation with a poor result at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.
But this may be the moment to ask ourselves whether we will continue coddling South Korean football with unconditional praise, or whether we will use a more demanding and clear-eyed approach to correct its shortcomings and revive the national team.
FAQ
Q1. Why is excessive optimism about South Korean football a problem?
A. When hopeful predictions such as “the team is playing well” and “things will improve soon” are repeated instead of offering an objective analysis of performance, real problems can be hidden. Without rigorous evaluation and criticism, it becomes difficult to identify what needs to improve, which can ultimately slow the team’s development.
Q2. What does the article identify as South Korean football’s biggest weakness?
A. The article points to the team’s slow tempo and passing speed as its biggest weaknesses. Rather than making quick decisions and moving the ball immediately after receiving it, the players are often a beat too slow, giving opponents time to organize defensively and reducing the threat of their attacks.
Q3. Does this mean South Korean players lack individual ability?
A. Not necessarily. The article argues that the larger problems lie in the team’s approach to managing games, the speed of its decision-making and its tactical cohesion, rather than in the players’ technical ability alone. In other words, the team needs to improve its collective tempo and organization.
Q4. What is the difference between South Korean football under Hiddink and the current team?
A. Under Hiddink, the national team is credited with competing on equal terms against the world’s strongest sides through intense pressing, quick passing and proactive movement. The current team, by contrast, is often criticized for slow transitions between attack and defense and for failing to take control of matches.
Q5. What does South Korean football need most in order to improve?
A. The article’s central argument is that South Korean football needs objective analysis and clear-eyed evaluation, rather than unconditional support or optimism. The national team’s competitiveness can improve only when it develops a culture of accurately diagnosing problems and working to fix them.
