The Korean national football team gave the country a harsh wakeup call on Thursday after Spain trounced the team during a friendly at Stade de Suisse in Switzerland.
Korea’s crushing 4-1 defeat against the No. 1-ranked team gave coach Choi Kang-hee a chance to see where the players weaknesses lie.
Although Choi’s men ended the first half tied with Spain, the gameplay on both sides were meant for different leagues. Just 11 minutes into the game, Benat Etxebarria tossed up a cross to the middle where it was met by an easy nod in from Fernando Torres for a goal that set the mood. Satisfied with the one-goal lead, Spain felt comfortable enough to let Korea play on their own like parents watching children in the yard. But Kim Do-heon snapped coach Vincente Del Bosque’s men out of their lethargy with an impressively clean strike from outside the box that met the net, before the first half ended.
Korea’s Son Heung-min threads Spain’s defense. (Yonhap News)
However, that was where things changed for the Korean team, as Spain once again punished them for stepping out of line and asserted their dominance as the world’s best.
Within 10 minutes into the second half, Spain shot in two goals through a penalty and free kick without much effort.
Once Spain was happy with their lead, both sides began to rest their players. Spain benched their key players Torres and Santiago Cazorla Gonzalez while Korea switched around their bench to warm them up for 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
The game opened up the No. 31 FIFA-ranked team for criticism of both their offense and defense. Although Korea tried to rattle the post and kept Spain’s goal keeper Jose Reina Paez somewhat busy in the first half, the second half saw no such effort from the Korean team.
The Korean team was defensively obsolete, keeping goalkeeper Kim Jin-hyeon busy all night. The Korean defenders left Torres wide open for his no-look header despite a visible signal from the Chelsea striker moments before.
In the second half Korea could not learn from its mistakes, giving away one free shot just minutes after another for handballs.
The last goal by Negredo was the nail in the coffin for Korea, hammering down the point that Korea’s defense could not anticipate Spain’s accurate passes.
Despite Korea’s crushing defeat, Choi still brushed it off as a chance to warm up for Qatar and see his players in action.
“I checked out overseas Korean football players in the first half and replaced many of them in the second half,” said Choi during the post-match press conference.
Korea will travel to Doha on Monday to play against Qatar, the No. 84-ranked team, on June 9 for the first match of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.
On June 12, Korea will face Lebanon on its home turf in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.
By Robert Lee (
robert@heraldcorp.com)