Hong Myung-bo Team World Cup 'Greatest Disaster' Crisis, Badly Collapsed Defense Line "The main opponent is stronger..."

*This content was translated by AI.

The defense line collapsed disastrously less than three months before the World Cup finals. Big club center back Kim Min-jae (30, Bayern Munich) played full season and kept the back door, but it was not enough to handle the opponent's offense alone.

The South Korean national soccer team, led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, was completely defeated 0-4 in a warm-up match against Ivory Coast at Miltonkins Stadium MK in England on the 28th (Korea Standard Time).

It was a devastating event. Hong Myung-bo Team suffered a crushing defeat by four goals on the symbolic stage of its 1,000th A-match in the history of Korean soccer.

On this day, coach Hong Myung-bo launched a back three tactic that led to Kim Tae-hyun (Kashiwa Reysol), Kim Min-jae and Cho Yoo-min (Sharja). Ahead of the match against strong teams such as Mexico, South Africa, and European Playoff Pass D (Denmark or Czech Republic), which will meet in the group stage of the finals, coach Hong Myung-bo is believed to have set the strand of Plan A with three-backs instead of the existing four-backs.

However, the three-back he took out in preparation for the finals was useless in front of Ivory Coast's personal ability. In particular, the right defensive line, where Cho Yoo-min was deployed, was thoroughly attacked by opposing wingers Marcial Godot and Simon Adingra, providing an excuse for the loss. Even though Kim Min-jae struggled to cover a wide range, the limit was clear to fill the already cracked defense alone.

In each scene of the loss, the lack of defensive concentration was clearly revealed. In the 35th minute of the first half, Cho Yoo-min allowed a side breakthrough and gave up the first goal, and in the extra time of the first half, defenders who were turning their back on Adingra failed to control the opponent's conversion at all and allowed additional runs. Kim Min-jae also showed signs of shaking in the 23rd minute of the first half, allowing a free kick by committing a foul in a dangerous area.

The situation was even worse in the second half. In the 17th minute of the second half, Yang Hyun-joon's ambiguous header handling became a source of concern and dedicated the third goal. Even though goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo made a good save, the defense's response to the second ball was much slower than the Ivory Coast strikers. Just before the end of the game, the defense completely collapsed with one counterattack and was beaten to the fourth goal.

The defensive instability exposed in this match, which was set as a virtual South Africa, turned on a red light for Hong Myung-bo Team, which is about to go to the finals. Although some of the main players were missing, there is no excuse for allowing four runs because they were close to Plan A at least for three-backs. The record is the most since the 0-5 loss to Brazil in 2021.

South Korea also had bad luck hitting the post three times when Oh Hyun-kyu (Besikta City), Seol Young-woo (Trvena Zvezda), and Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain) shot. However, the space exposed to each defensive sequence and inexperienced response were too fatal to blame luck.

At this rate, a more serious catastrophe is on the verge of occurring in the World Cup finals. Captain Son Heung-min (LAFC) also said, "In the World Cup, we have to meet a more difficult opponent than this," adding, "We have to think that the opponent is better than us and play humbly." Defeat hurts, but we have to learn what we have to learn, he stressed.

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*This content was translated by AI.