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| South Korea's Olympic football team head coach Kim Hak-beom sprays water onto the training pitch at the North Seaside Stadium in Kashima, Sunday. / Yonhap |
By John Duerden
With all the soccer that has been played in the past five years, it feels like a long time since we had the 2016 Rio Olympics. It feels longer than five years since Son Heung-min cried on the field after a quarter-final loss at the hands of Honduras. South Korea will face the same Central American opposition in the third and last game of Group B and before that, there are games with Romania and, in Thursday's opener, against New Zealand, in the city of Kashima, a couple of hours outside Tokyo.
The group is seen as a relatively easy one but none of the opposition should be taken lightly. The top two will go through to the last eight and a potential clash against host Japan. The young Taeguk Warriors will, however, be aiming for the top spot and they are favorites to do so.
New Zealand will be formidable physical opposition, well-organized and hard to beat. Korea will have to hit the ground running, but looking at the last two warm-up games, it remains to be seen if they are ready. Drawing 2-2 with Argentina and losing 2-1 to France raised as many questions as answers, especially regarding defense. Throwing away the lead against the French on Friday was not the best way to finish preparation, the day before leaving for Tokyo.
Coach Kim Hak-beom didn't agree however, arguing that the games had been valuable. The events of the next few days will reveal whether most agree or not.
"We've gained so much from these matches. We were able to identify our shortcomings, and we'll try to fix them so that we won't have the same issues in the Olympics," Coach Kim said. "These defensive problems only surface when we play strong teams. I have faith in my players."
New Zealand may not be seen as a strong team but they can cause lots of problems. In particular, Chris Wood, one of New Zealand's overage players (Each of the 16 coaches can choose three players over the age of 24. This age limit is usually 23, but as the games were delayed a year, the limit has been temporarily raised.) is a very difficult striker to handle physically. The 29-year-old has scored 10 goals or more for the English Premier League's Burnley for the past four seasons and this achievement is an impressive record for one of the league's smallest teams and one that struggles to score goals. This summer, he may well move to a bigger Premier League team and a good showing at the Olympics will do Wood no harm on that front.
Worse for Korea, is that star center-back Kim Min-jae has not been released by his club, Beijing FC. It was long seen as the job of this powerful defender to deal with Wood and the general aerial threat.
Center-back Lee Sang-min, also captain of the team, will have to step in. "I've watched a lot of clips to study his tendencies," Lee said. "If one-on-one coverage doesn't work, then we'll put multiple bodies on him and play help defense."
Giant defender Winston Reid is another threat in the air and is also Premier League-based. If Korea can match the Kiwis physically, then they will look to their superior speed and technical ability to get the goals. Hwang Ui-jo is an underrated striker, and if he can get the supply from the likes of Lee Kang-in and Kwon Chang-hoon, then Korea should be OK.
The game may be harder than many think and it won't be a disaster if it ends all square, but for a team that has genuine ambitions of winning a medal, a winning start could really provide the necessary momentum.
