Published : Nov. 4, 2013 - 18:57
Korea striker Kim Shin-wook (Yonhap News)
Streaking domestic league striker Kim Shin-wook made it back on the national soccer team on Monday for two friendly matches set for later this month.
Much-maligned forward Park Chu-young, meanwhile, remained on the outside looking in, despite making his long-awaited appearance for Arsenal in the English Premier League last week.
Head coach Hong Myung-bo announced the team of 23 players for the Nov. 15 match against Switzerland at home and the Nov. 19 contest against Russia in Dubai.
Kim, a towering, 196-centimeter-tall striker for Ulsan Hyundai in the K League Classic, returned to the national team picture after being left off Hong’s squad in the last five contests.
Kim currently leads the top Korean league with 18 goals in 33 matches, one more than Pedro of Jeju United. Having found the net in three straight matches, Kim hopes to become the first local player to lead the competition in scoring in three seasons, after Dejan Damjanovic, the Montenegrin striker of FC Seoul, won the scoring title the past two years.
Kim had been a fixture on the team under Hong’s predecessor, Choi Kang-hee. Hong used him mostly as a second-half substitute in his first three matches, during the East Asian Cup tournament here in July.
Hong said Kim’s presence on the field was detrimental to the team’s offensive flow because wingers and midfielders only kept looking to send in long crosses for the tall forward rather than trying to make more creative plays on the ground.
Kim will be tasked with giving a spark to the inconsistent South Korean offense. In eight matches under Hong, the country has scored nine goals, but seven of them came against overmatched opponents Haiti and Mali.
At a press conference discussing his selection, Hong said Kim is “a player with a lot of strengths.”
“More than anyone else, we can use him as an important weapon on offense,” Hong said. “After this month, our next friendly match will be March 5. If I didn’t call up Kim, he wouldn’t have had enough time to play with others from overseas leagues (before the FIFA World Cup starting in June).”
Hong said he believes his players will now have a better understanding of how to play off Kim’s strengths.
“I think it’d be best to put Kim in a position where he can present the most threat to opponents,” the coach said. “And he’d have to gel with other talented players. I am guaranteeing him a starting role, but he will definitely be one of our options.”
Also on offense, forward Park Chu-young will remain an observer of Hong’s squad. The 28-year-old has been relegated to the football netherworld for the better part of the past two years but made a surprising appearance as a substitute for Arsenal in a League Cup match last Tuesday.
It was his first match of this season, and his first for Arsenal since March 2012, in the second leg of the round-of-16 match against AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League.
Park’s appearance fueled speculation among Korean media that Hong would finally call up the talented forward, but the coach said he didn’t think Park was ready yet.
“He has more international experience than anyone on the current squad, and he knows better than anyone what it takes to play for the country,” Hong said of the forward with 23 international goals in 61 matches. “I am fully aware of his individual skills, but he just hasn’t been playing much on his club.”
Hong said he’d be willing to wait until the end of the winter transfer period in January in European football to see if Park will join a club that will give him more playing time.
The match against Russia in Dubai will be Hong’s first international match away from home. The contest against the 19th-ranked Russia will come only four days after the 58th-ranked South Korea hosts the world No. 7 Switzerland. (Yonhap News)