Korean forward Lee Chun-soo—who, truth be told, is a dick—is warning Group G opponent Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor that he’ll come to regret comments he made reportedly dissing Korea’s 2002 performance.
According to Korean sports news OSEN, Adebayor supposedly said—you may want to sit down for this—that Korea was helped to the semifinal match of the 2002 World Cup by homefield advantage and the officials.
Anyway, Lee told reporters today, “Adebayor is belittling Korea’s making it to the semifinals [in 2002], but football isn’t something you do with words, and it’s not something Adebayor can do alone…. Because Adebayor is a world-class player, he’s clearly better than me, but football isn’t a one-on-one fight. In organizing ability, we’re better than Togo.” He added, “Just in terms of experience, we’re far ahead of Togo, which has made it to the World Cup finals for the first time. At the very least, I don’t think we lag behind [Togo]… In the World Cup, I’ll make Adebayor regret belittling us.”
Oh, to imagine what Lee will write on his undershirt this time. Or maybe he’ll get Miss M World Kim Ri-na to shove a red-hot pitchfork up Adebayor’s ass. Or perhaps point a red-hot pitchfork at the Togolese flag. Or maybe rub in previous victories over Togo. Or something equally diabolical.
Anyway, I couldn’t find when Adebayor said what he supposedly said, but I did learn that Togo’s players have been ordered by their coach NOT to talk to the Korean press on pain of being dropped from the squad. The coach even went as far as to tell them not to talk to Chinese or Japanese people either, lest they actually be Koreans. Probably a smart move for several reasons, not the least of which is the Korean sports media’s penchant for blowing up each and every single comment made by opposing players into a grievous slight to the Korean nation.
41 Comments
Lee Chun Soo is a dick. He’s worser than an only child. Problem is, he thinks he’s so good at football, and he thinks he’s a chick magnet. Has no problems with talking trash about his peers and teammates.
Well, he is a chick magnet. I mean, what woman wouldn’t dig those golden locks?
This is just another attempt to drum up spectatorship for the match between Korea and Togo.
Unfortunately, both players made quite objective statements. There is truth in what hte Togo player said. There is truth is what the Korean player is also saying. While Korea may have been “lucky” to finish in the final 4 last world cup, Korea has been consistently qualifying for world cup since the 80s. And the element of luck wasn’t on the Korean side in their matches against the US and Portugal. So they definitely played well enough to be in the last 16.
I’m not sure what is the problem with teh Korean players response. He is quite a matter of fact stating a typical sportsman response to make his opponent regret. I think Mohmammned Ali used to make statements like that too. Those who criticize him for making statements like these should also critic Mohammend Ali. Are such responses not considered polite in Western culture or something?
You tell us. You’re the one in San Diego.
Maybe not polite in eastern culture then.
If I were Korean, I will not watch any game unless Korea makes it to the last 16. The craze is just too much that if Korea doesn’t make it to the last 16, its going to be such a BIIIIIGGGG disssapointment. Better to be dissapointed while having achieve a good result than to be dissappointed for not even making it past the 1st round. Plus you are building up too much pressure.
Another thing I want to caution the Korean government is NOT TO ANNOUCE any suprising gifts if Korea beats France or some other team(obviously I am showing my lack of knowledge about Korea). They need to set the standard NOW. What players will get if they make it to the last 16, what they will get if they make it to last 8, what they will get if last 4, and last 2 and last 1. Don’t make any suprise announcements like “no military service” or “free KOrean airline flights for life” etc. etc. in the middle of the tournament. They will do this. I just know it.They will get very “high” over an unexpected soccer victory over say France and suddenly the whole nation coffers will be transfered to the players in the midst of that celebritary drunkeness.
Lee Chunsu doesn’t pass even when he sees another player rushing in. He is a ball-hog and Korean team will suffer because of his “idiotic” plays.
Kick him out of the team. He is a typical second string player. He has no sense and he is so short that he can head the ball in. He should not be allowed to play the forward position without heading ability. Lee should be used only in practice games. In the Cup games, Park Juyoung should play the forward position.
Lee is a liability than an asset.
What a cack.
Pearl of wisdom #1:
Plus you are building up too much pressure.
Pearl of wisdom #2:
Another thing I want to caution the Korean government is NOT TO ANNOUCE any suprising gifts if Korea beats France or some other team(obviously I am showing my lack of knowledge about Korea). They need to set the standard NOW. What players will get if they make it to the last 16, what they will get if they make it to last 8, what they will get if last 4, and last 2 and last 1.
M_kay?
I’m not sure why Lee Chun Soo (kae sicky) is even making a big deal about this. The fact that Korea was helped by questionable officiating in the last World Cup is well known. It’s also a matter of common knowledge that the Spanish team demanded an official inquiry due to the number of blatently biased calls that benefited the Korean team. To be fair, the Japanese team also benefited from questionable calls after FIFA decided (wink wink nudge nudge) that the host countries WILL make at least the 2nd round; preferably higher. Can’t have the host countries spending all that money on new stadiums and then suffer an early exit. It’s simply good business to reward the host countries investments.
Oh wait…I forgot this was well reported in all the world media except in Korea. An unbiased report like that might have dampened the euphoria. Lee Chun Soo (the dick) may indeed be unaware of the assistance FIFA gave to his countrymen last time around.
With an easy first group, Korea should advance to the second round even with a loss to France. After that the party’s over.
There is absolutely no evidence that FIFA rigged the officials to favor the host teams. That is just an irresponsible accusation to suggest that this is ‘well known’. It wouldn’t be a surprise if FIFA really did want the host team to win, but that’s far different from actually going out and rigging the refereeing.
Adebayor is also a dick—witness him getting the last Togo coach fired after a row during the African Cup of Nations. Nothing to make of Lee’s comments though… in fact he was very respectful, touting Adebayor’s ability. Now sit down for this: “At the very least, I don’t think we lag behind [Togo]. Wow, what trash talking. I’m stunned at his impudence.
I’m amused by the tone of this post. The condescension toward Koreans (and Korean players) in the build-up to the World Cup is rampant here, as if Korea is the only country going football-mad right now, or if opposing players’ comments aren’t blown up in other nations.
As for Lee Chun Soo, he may be a little big-headed (though I bet less so since he returned from Spain), but he’s been one of our best offensive players since ‘02. He can’t finish for crap but he can create, and he will be a major factor in Germany.
And for the record… There was bad officiating in the Spain game that helped Korea for sure, but don’t tell me the red cards weren’t deserved against Portugal. Totti’s send-off was questionable for sure, but I don’t believe it decided the match as much as Italy’s ill-advised tactics and general arrogance. But let’s not open that box again…
donnieknutts,
A guy who cannot finish should not play a forward position. He may need to move back to the midfield.
Among tall defenders, he looks like a kindergarden child. He is absolutely of no use in that situation. So, whenever he gets the ball, he doesn’t pass, but drivel all by himself even when surrounded by several defenders. Then, he loses the ball. WTF!
Get rid of this joker from Korean national team. That, in my opinion, is worth at least one extra goal per game.
Apparently, I was mistaken when I wrote:
Should have noted its not just the media, but some netizens as well, apparently.
Well, we certainly wouldn’t want to open that box again. Kind of like how the Roy Jones Jr. box remains curiously shut, while the Apollo Ohno, Paul Hamm and 2006 WBC U.S. baseball team boxes are opened each and every time Korea and the United States face one another in international competition. But hey, you’re probably right—most likely find sports writing like this in most countries.
To baduk:
But Lee Chun Soo is an attacking MF/winger, not a CF, so he will not be expected to produce goals. (He has been experimented with as a wide forward in 4-3-3 but I believe for the most part he’ll play behind alongside Park Ji Sung). Lee’s poor finishing is noticeable because he can be a ball hog and overshoot, as you noted, but his main task in Germany will be to create chances with his pace and dribbling. He is a good crosser of the ball and I think a decent complement to Park on the other side.
Leave the goals to Ahn (hopefully) and Park Chu Young. Provided they can finish in Germany, that is.
If you have a ball hog in a team, the rest of the team get frustrated. Once a ball is given to Lee ChunSoo, the ball never comes back. And, Lee cannot score, either. He loses the ball. Just mess up the attack.
Let’s assume a soccer team gets 50 attack chances per game. Lee, singlehandedly, will mess up 20 of them. Make them ineffective.
If he is replaced with a player who can pass/score like Kim DooHyeun, Kim Dongjin or Cho Jaejin, Korea team will have much better chance to score.
Just junk Lee. With Lee in the team, Korean team is doomed.
bhaduk,
so why is he on the team? what’s the scoop? why did the coach pick him?
LOL–I always thought Lee was overrated, but I didn’t know there was a consensus about it.
Baduk is totally correct, he’s a ball hog and can’t score. He must have some friends high up in the K-league to even be on the WC team.
Baduk,
Since you seem to be knowledgable and I know little about soccer, tell me if it is possible for soccer players to form circular human shield and surround the ball in the middle. That way it forms a human shield preventing the opposing team from ever reaching the ball without fouling. Is this allowed by regulations? Does it work in practice? It looks kinda stupid but surely there are instances in the game where it could be utilized.
mahathir_fan = Mork from Orc
“And for the record… There was bad officiating in the Spain game that helped Korea for sure, but don’t tell me the red cards weren’t deserved against Portugal. Totti’s send-off was questionable for sure, but I don’t believe it decided the match as much as Italy’s ill-advised tactics and general arrogance. But let’s not open that box again…”
World cup is big business for thousands of illegal gambling dens. There will always be corruption and Korea was a team that was primed to be the guinea pig. It can play well enough to win against many teams yet it has little reputaion. This puts the odds of winning heavily against the Koreans which means that the payout is much greater if Korea wins. It is like an undervalued stock in 2002. i’m sure many gamblers from all across the world benefited from Korea’s wins back in 2002.
Korea has little to be concern about refereeing against them in their match against France and Switzerland. I think the gambling houses would still put odds in favor of France and Switzerland so if there is corruption, it will corrupt in Korea’s favour. It is the match against Togo that you would see refereeing against Korea if any. But with the 2002 success of Korea, even the odds setup for Korea-France may not be so big now because Korea now has a reputation. And that would make those games unpopular among the gamblers. With gamblers outta of the picture, you should see fairer refereeing.
Why do you think Korea and Japan can enter the world cup but not China? China’s soccer league is laden with corruptions and game setups! Soccer=gambling in China and soccer players=actors.
“mahathir_fan = Mork from Orc ”
Michael, how unfair. As I recall, Mork used to say some quite profound stuff from time to time.
Dangermouse–that’s true, my bad.
M-F, you seem to know quite a lot about World Cup, gambling, yet nothing about the game itself, not unlike your pronouncements about local Chinese elections and democracy.
But then again, a “human shield” around the football might be a brilliant strategy since the opposing side wouild be laughing too hard to stop them. However, the ball can be easily reached without fouling, just to disabuse you of that notion.
mahathir_fan,
You are thinking of the scram in Rugby. Well, soccer is a very dynamic game. The ball moves so fast back and forth and there is no time to for four or five players to gather to form a scram. The other side will not allow it. Opposing players will tackle and wiggle the ball out of there.
SouthAmerican team do use your idea, though. Three or four players pass the ball back and forth between them and move as a group to penetrate the opposing defense. When Brazilians do it, it is awesome.
Coming back to the main subject, Lee is a very flash player. He runs around a lot and, since he hogs the ball, for amateurs watching the game he seems to create chances. However, he is hogging the ball when he should be passing and, when finally he does, he passes to the wrong player, usually to a player in off-side position. He takes a shot in a very bad angle when the goalie is waiting to catch his shot. The probability of his scoring low to nil. In such case, he should be waiting for other players to come and pass. Instead, he just kick one of his ddongbal(bad kick). His plays are textbook examples of bad soccer plays. No wonder that he got kicked out from a second string Spain League team. He singlehandedly makes Korean offense ineffective. Other players do not show it but hate Lee’s stupid plays.
Just look at today’s game. When he was gone, Korean team suddenly came alive. More passing between players and real chances were created, culminating in Cho Jaejin’s goal.
Just leave Lee at home when the team heads for Germany. He is a liability.
Baduk — we saw the game at the office tonight and when I asked my boss what he thought of Lee he said, “I can’t tell you what I’m thinking right now” after Lee blew the second shot he took. Ddongbal is right.
I am flabbergasted at the blind faith that Koreans have with regard to their national sports teams, pounded in their skulls by the indoctrination of the Korean sports press. I recently had the chance to talk to my Father-in-law about Korea’s 6-0 loss to Japan in the WBC. My take was simple, Kim Byung-Hyun caved (like he famously did before under pressure) and Uehara dominated. He looked at me like a stupid child and went immediately to his rant about the US rigging the system to their advantage which backfired, pitting Korea against Japan 3 times. He just absolutely would not criticize BK or admit that Japan was more solid. I saw the same trend in the Korean sports press. None of them placed any blame on BK’s huge choke, but railed on the WBC system.
No Korean newspaper will endorse removing Lee Chun Soo, short of a suicide goal in a game against Japan. I remember Guus Hiddink coming under a lot of fire early on because he would actually pick players based on their ability (gasp!), and not on their senority or loyalty to the team. In 2002, I remember my Dad gaping at the TV shouting, “who the hell is this Pak Ji-Sung kid??” Now, the 2002 team members have become the entrenched seniors who need a fresh evaluation of their abilities which they probably won’t get until things go badly.
Wow, Chun Soo must’ve slept with some of your girls. I feel like he’s matured in recent years and in the qualifiers (as well as Asian Cup matches) I’ve seen, he’s been quite effective. He gets a lot of stick because he looks like an elf, he is perceived as being overly arrogant, and he has consistently terrible hairstyles. But he is a highly skilled player who has been great in K-League since returning from Spain. That failure at Sociedad (and Numancia)—not a “second string” team, by the way, they finished 2nd in Primera Liga the year before Lee arrived—has definitely put a dent in his hubris, which is a good thing.
We shall see in Germany.
when I watch KBS news, I am basically told what to think. One of Park Chung Hee’s favorite weapons to indoctrinate the masses has been KBS 9pm news. Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun have chosen to continue the tradition. The foreigners who marvel at the unitary mindset of the South Koreans on certain issues do not have to marvel at all. It’s not much different from Goebbel’s propaganda brain wash of Germany. The state news agency tells you what to believe, and Koreans believe it. To the heart.
The only gripe I have about this as a Choong Chung Do origin is that Kyong Sang Do people had zero problem with this until they lost the seat of the Presidency.
As an anti-socialist, I hope Han Nara wins the next elections, to right the course of the nation. But, I’ll be fairly upset if Han Nara continues to use KBS and other media Goebbels-style.
I’m not so sure if the state dictates the course of sporting news, but all of the South Korean media seems united in how they present national sporting news.
I can’t imagine this kind of united mind set if the citizens were deprived of such “informing” news via tv, internet, or newspapers.
On politics, the papers and the internet have a wide split. Signs of a functioning democracy.
check this out.
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/ne.....;type=lgns
I-ta-lia ~
baduk:
Watch the highlights of last night’s 2-0 friendly win over Bosnia for Lee Chun Soo at his best… as an attacking mid he was dynamic in the first half—Korea’s best offensive player—and had two brilliant crosses in the 2nd half, the first leading to the opening goal from Seol Ki Hyun. This is what we need from him in Germany. I’m telling you, he will be a positive factor.
Link here: http://www.babyhome.net/DataFo.....good20.wmv
donnieknutts, if that was Lee at his best, I hope they forget to take him to Germany. He muffed two wide-open free kicks and the cross Seol converted was hardly brilliant, sorry. Ditch him and put in Cha Du-ri.
Cha Du-Ri isn’t even on the team this year.
Exactly. Ditch Lee (remove him from the WC squad) and put in Cha. Anyway, it’s too late now….
Finally, the best formation is exactly what I had in mind.
http://www.joins.com/article/2308161.html?ctg=14
Sulgihyeun, Anjungwhan and Parkjuyoung in front and Parkjisung as the midfield general.
No Leechunsoo. Sorry, but he is not a good player.
Baduk, that is about the strongest formation they can make, good news.
Let’s revisit this in a few weeks. I still think Lee Chun Soo will make a positive impact in the WC. We shall see.
haha, the human shield, good stuff.
A Spanish friend of Korean heritage living in Spain told me he really hated the fact that an ugly Korean dude who thought he was the shit was playing in La Liga and talking trash about other players and his own teammates; a bunch of hardcore Sociedad fans rushed at him when he was in the wrong part of town, and being the only Asian there, they didn’t give a fuck if he was a Korean of a Japanese or a Chinese; he wondered why the fuck a player who was brought in to score goals could not score a single goal; and above all, he wondered why Chyon-su went around town saying he was the Asian Beckham and dressing like a fairy, giving most Spanish people the impression that Koreans dress like fairies…but that much is true, I think.
Chunsoo in the game today. Advocaat let Chunsoo be the main attacker. The outcome: Korea lost 1-3.
I am telling you again that Korean team can do much better without Lee. He hogs the ball, makes bad plays consistently and force his shots from bad angles. His shots are not even close to the net.
Like a man who prematurely ejaculates, Lee shoots when he has to wait and pass to his teammates who are in better position to take a shot.
He has got to go! He singlehandedly makes Korean offense ineffective.
“According to Korean sports news OSEN, Adebayor supposedly said—you may want to sit down for this—that Korea was helped to the semifinal match of the 2002 World Cup by homefield advantage and the officials.”
Yeah, it’s just unbelievable somebody would imply such a thing
There are some decent fellows on the Korean team but Lee is incredibly arrogant and according to several women in my office, not a ‘chick magnet’. The “Asian Beckham” …bwaahahahaha, not by a mile. He could improve the Korean teams’ image by learning to keep his fantasies to himself.
That’s too bad about Cha Du-ri, I thought he was a fairly decent, level-headed player. Not the type to run off at the mouth like this Lee idiot.
Soccer scandals spiraling out of control in Italy
By ANDREW DAMPF, AP Sports Writer
ROME (AP) — Millions of Italian soccer fans watch in despair as a scandal sweeping the nation’s favorite sport unfolds, with each day bringing fresh details of alleged match-fixing, illegal betting and manipulation of referee assignments.
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/ne.....;type=lgns
/ Match-fixing ?! In Europe ?! In football ?! Oh, My !
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great blog…
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