Korea 2 Serbia 1

June 5th, 2011 | by: Jae | Comments Off

Friday saw Cho’s Taeguk Warriors take on Serbia and record a 2-1 victory over the European team in the first of two friendlies in June. It was a solid win against, an admittedly understrength Serbian side, but it is still an important win. Ghana is next up on Tuesday.

Cho did employ the 4-1-4-1 formation against Serbia. His starting XI was as expected:

Park Chu-Young (c)

Lee Keun-Ho / Lee Yong-Rae / Kim Jung-Woo / Lee Chung-Yong

Ki Sung-Yueng

Kim Young-Kwan / Hong Jeong-Ho / Lee Jung-Soo / Cha Du-Ri

Jung Sung-Ryong

The team played as they have in the past. The midfield is solid, the defense competent, but shaky at times, the attack capable of brilliance. I suppose overall the play is good, but it’s slightly concerning that progress is not more evident in areas that have been weaknesses since Cho arrived. Let’s look at each area of the team from the Serbia match.

Goalkeeper: Jung S.R. continues to be solid and a worthy successor of Lee Won-Jae. His reflexes are very good as evidenced early in the match when he made a good save against a Serbian header and then quickly followed up by pushing the rebound strike up onto the crossbar to collect. But, he is still prone to being slightly indecisive and hesitant. He was fortunate not to end up on the wrong end of a youtube highlight video when Radosav Petrovic took a shot from half way that ended up deflecting off the upright. Jung was badly out of position and was scrambling back to get there and, if the ball had been a foot to the right, would not have been able to keep it out.

Defense: Still better attacking than defending. Cha D.R. and Kim Y.K. had solid outings and were very effective going forward. Indeed, Kim had an assist for Park C.Y.’s goal and scored himself later with Cha picking up the assist that time. Still, Kim had some problems with Zoran Tosic on the left and it was his poor clearance that led to Serbia’s late goal. Cha left a few holes behind him when he went forward as usual. Lee J.S. and Hong J.H. had solid outings, but similar to Jung S.R. in goal, do not exactly inspire confidence. Lee seems to be Cho’s first choice in center, and Hong is young (21) and will hopefully develop into a good partner.

Midfield: Certainly our strongest area. The usual three, Lee Chung-Yong, Ki Sung-Yueng, and Lee Yong-Rae all had decent games. Ki distributed the ball well, although I have some concerns about him being the only defensive cover for the backline against better opposition as he’s not really a defensive midfielder. Lee Y.R. did well as well, but missed a good opportunity to score early. Lee C.Y. had a slightly subpar outing by his standards. He ran a lot and hustled, but lacked that creative spark that he usually brings to the right. I’m not a close follower of Bolton, but I seem to recall reading that Lee C.Y. had some problems re-adjusting back into the Bolton line up following the Asian Cup. Maybe that is still affecting him a bit, or maybe he’s just a little low on energy following a long Premiership campaign? Either way he’ll need to be better in the future. Kim Jung-Woo continues to play well in the supporting striker/attacking midfield role. He seems to have a natural predatory instinct, but at 29 does he figure in Cho’s plans for 2014 and what will happen when Koo Ja-Cheol returns to the line up? The final player in the midfield was Lee Keun-Ho who did not do anything to really cement or challenge for a spot in the XI. There will likely be more chances for him, but right now I’d say he is certainly the most likely to get sent to the bench for the aforementioned Koo.

Forwards: Park Chu-Young. Hmmm, where to play him. He’s not a typical number 9, which is currently the spot he’s occupying in the team. I advocated for him to take Park Ji-Sung’s role, a free roaming attacking midfield spot (although with less defensive responsibilities) where he can use his pace and creativity to spark the attack behind a more traditional number 9 (Ji Dong-Won). However, in the current 4-1-4-1, Park really can only play in the forward spot. A traditional midfield role does not suit him and I think it would be a waste to put him there. That being said, I thought that against Serbia he was largely invisible due to the fact that he was playing by himself up top. It must be mentioned though that he did score a wonderful header.

Overall the team’s effort was solid. They rarely looked to be under too much pressure, except on set pieces and was comfortable in possession. They weren’t exactly carving Serbia up, but still the passing was good and the team seems to be getting used to Cho’s emphasis on quick transitions from defense to offense. Hopefully soon he’ll begin working with the defenders on being a little more assertive on set pieces and winning the ball. Ghana on Tuesday. Should be a tough test for Korea. More on that match later.