Korea takes third in Asian Cup

Iraq won the Asian Cup yesterday, and I'm happy for them. They deserve some good news. Korea is happy, too -- they defeated Japan for third place.

Yet Korea's coach Pim Verbeek (he's Dutch) is so ticked he's quitting a year earlier than his contract ends. Irritated by poor support within Korea and the low number of goals at the tournament, he said he's going to take "a long break" before considering another coaching job.¹

I can understand what he means. Korea's last three games ended in shootouts, one of which they lost (to Iraq). They got third because they were lucky enough to play crappier teams than themselves, but they could have taken it all.

In Korea, the national team is subordinate to the professional teams. The normal playing schedule wasn't interrupted because of the Cup, leaving players to play on very little rest. Just days before the tournament, one of the professional coaches even made his team do laps to punish them for a loss.

Such frustrations are the real reason Verbeek is quitting. And the world's impression of Korean soccer won't improve until that's fixed.