Who is this evaluation game for? The Vietnam War, held for the first time in 59 years, has no real benefit no matter how you look at it.

Who is this evaluation game for? The Vietnam War, held for the first time in 59 years, has no real benefit no matter how you look at it.

The Europeans flew thousands of kilometers. Asian Games members were also convened without being able to rest. The K-League players ahead of the final round are equally exhausted. The opponent of the evaluation match, which is played with the ‘best’, is Vietnam. It has been 32 years since a Southeast Asian team was invited to Korea for an evaluation match. Questions about ‘who and what the evaluation is for?’, which have been raised since the evaluation stage, are growing more and more.

Concerns that there was no practical benefit no matter how one looked at it became reality with the news of Vietnam’s defeat in the China war. Vietnam lost 0-2 in a friendly match against China held in Dalian, China on the 10th. In the FIFA rankings, Vietnam is 95th and China is 80th. The days of coach Park Hang-seo, who lost 2-3 to China after a hard-fought game in neutral territory and won 3-1 at home, are a thing of the past. The current head coach of Vietnam is Philippe Troussier (France), who led Japan during the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup.

There was no rotation in preparation for the Korean War. Familiar players such as Do Hung Chung, Dang Van Lam, and Nguyen Van Toan also appeared as starters. Fortunately, three of the starters were players with less than 5 games of A-match experience, and the rest were filled by key members. Nevertheless, all the power of the complete defeat by China is heading to Korea. The friendly match against Uzbekistan is an unofficial A match, and the friendly match between Korea and Vietnam will be held at Suwon World Cup Stadium on the 17th.

This is the first time that an international match held in Korea is being played against a Southeast Asian team since the 1991 match against Indonesia. It has been 59 years since the Vietnam War was held in Hyochang in 1964. The reason why no evaluation match against Southeast Asian teams has been held in Korea for over 30 years is clear. This was because there was no advantage to be gained by playing against Southeast Asian teams, which was a rare opportunity to convene the best teams, including European teams, for an evaluation match. For the same reason, there was a lot of criticism from the time the news of a friendly match against Vietnam was announced, but the Korea Football Association (KFA) confirmed the friendly match.

KFA explains that it is not easy to find a partner in other continents, such as Europe and South America, as they each have their own schedules. However, the nearby Japan Football Association (JFA) early on held an evaluation match with Canada, a rising powerhouse in North and Central America. At a time when Korea could not even confirm the opponents for the September evaluation match, the JFA moved quickly and confirmed the schedule for the evaluation match a month later. This part shows the current state of KFA’s administrative power, and coincidentally, Canada’s October evaluation match schedule includes only one game away to Japan.

Although KFA has made an effort to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers and Asian Cup starting next month, Korea will immediately start clashing with Singapore (157th in FIFA rankings) or Guam (201st) from the first game of the World Cup qualifiers in November. We must continue to face off against weak Asian teams. In most cases, there is no need to prepare for it, and there are many confrontations where the power difference is large, and even if you want to avoid it, your adaptability can naturally increase as you continue to clash with Asian teams. It is for the same reason that there have been no domestic evaluation matches against Southeast Asian teams for over 30 years, and that evaluation matches have been held with teams from continents other than Asia as much as possible. Moreover, if the team suffers a complete loss to China, the meaning of the evaluation match will inevitably fade.

It is difficult to understand that they are playing an evaluation match with Vietnam like this, and to make matters worse, coach Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany) is in the mood to send out his best team even for the Vietnam game. The only way to find even a small meaning would be to utilize players who have not normally received opportunities, but Coach Klinsmann drew the line, saying, “There is no rotation.” It is in the same context that the best players were summoned without even a single new player in preparation for the war against Tunisia and Vietnam.스포츠토토

Since he is feeling pressure for results, including the disgraceful record of 5 consecutive games without a win (3 draws and 2 losses) since taking office, this may be a welcome match from the manager’s point of view. That’s why fans are criticizing the Vietnam War itself, saying it was promoted to ensure Coach Klinsmann’s victory. In fact, if you think about it, there is nothing clear left other than a superficial victory. It’s a pity not only for KFA, who made such a friendly match happen, but also for Coach Klinsmann, who is ready to show off his best team in such a friendly match.