Team A and age groups have begun their first moves toward “soccer harmony.” Team A coach Hong Myung-bo attended the “Mik in Korea” workshop and gave a presentation for the first time.
The Korea Football Association’s technical headquarters held a four-hour workshop at the Korea Football Association (KFA) Center in Sinmun-ro, Seoul on Tuesday with some 30 field experts including national team leaders, full-time leaders, instructors and power analysts. Workshop on MIK and related issues has been ongoing internally. However, this is the first workshop attended by the national team coach. Hong watched the practice match of the U-19 national team as his first move since his inauguration press conference last week.
The reason behind Hong’s acceptance of the position as head coach of the A-team lies in the “MIK Project.” “If the tactic used by the A-team can reach the age of 20 players, the team can join the A-team without needing time to adapt itself to the tactic. That is the strength of the team’s connection by age,” he said. “We only envied overseas soccer based on words. Realistically, if this system is applied, I think it will be a big issue for Korean soccer.”
The KFA unveiled the “MIK Project” in June, which includes technical philosophy and policies of Korean soccer and improvement of the national team’s management system by age. The project aims to strengthen the national team’s competitiveness. Even if a new coach changes, the team will continue to play consistent soccer that can be maintained for a long time. It also laid out the future of building the world’s “top 10” players by 2033, and its capacity to stably advance to the semifinals of the World Cup.
On the same day, Hong announced the game plan for the A team based on the MIK. Through the video analysis of Ulsan HD, which he has conducted for three and a half years, he explained the situation of the game when switching from attack and defense to defense and from defense to defense and from defense to offense. After the week shop, he said, “It was my first time overall, and it was nice to have time to talk with my former leaders. I shared the game model that I have played so far, and how I will lead the game in the future with my former leaders through my experiences and video scenes,” he said. “It was a meaningful time. It was not easy to have such a conversation with the coaches of the national teams by age in the field, but it was great for the future because we could talk about why there should be connection and continuity in national teams at all levels.”
Hong came back as the head coach of the A-team in 10 years after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. What caught my eye was the part that mentioned failure first. “I have experience as a coach of the A-team from 20 to 23. I have experienced the agony of former leaders and coaches by age group. I have talked about such experiences, and I will take the lead in the MIK policy as the A-team coach so that such policy can be quickly communicated to the leaders in the field,” he stressed.
I can’t be full at the first drink, but there was a consensus in the direction. Lee Chang-won, the coach of the U-19 national team, said, “I think it is right for the national team to follow the national team to find the players it wants. There may be a soccer star that I am pursuing in the field, but of course, I am not saying that I should eliminate that style, but I think it is also an important part of Korean soccer to share philosophy and develop by putting my own style on a big framework in this area.” He also said, “Coach Hong Myung-bo’s soccer style is always aggressive. I will follow the big frame and fully agree with it. He seems to prefer aggressive forward football rather than forward pressure or rear build-up. What I want from Hong is that if he gives me time to observe the team, it will take him a short time to quickly acquire the soccer he wants and wear it to our players.” 메이저놀이터
Kim In-wan, a full-time instructor at the leaders’ training session who served as the Daejeon coach, added, “It was good because it was a meaningful place to know exactly the direction we were going to take and play good soccer with unity from the national team by age group to the A team. In terms of education, we will try to put more Korean soccer models on the ground so that leaders can guide players on the spot.”