Less than a year after appointing former Germany and United States coach Jürgen Klinsmann as coach on a contract that would supposedly take him through the end of the 2026 World Cup cycle, South Korea now has to scramble to find a replacement before facing Thailand. in two qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in March.
The Korean Football Association (KFA) will begin its search against a backdrop of anger and regret, with the wounds still open from an Asian Cup campaign in which the team flattered itself to deceive, playing a style dubbed “zombie football.” by their fans and won only one elimination match in regulation before Jordan eliminated them in the semifinals.
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Then there was the pre-match brawl that featured two of the team's star figures, Son Heung-Min and Lee Kang-In, which led to the latter being inundated with abuse on social media. Klinsmann reportedly pointed to that incident as a factor in the surprising loss to Jordan, rather than any sort of tactical error on his part, but the loss felt like an inevitable endpoint given what they had produced up to that point. . The team's ability to have more of the ball than any other team in the tournament (69.8%) was in stark contrast to their ability to do anything meaningful with it, while they seemingly lacked clear direction.
The Asian Cup started well enough, with an opening 3-1 win over Bahrain, but that proved to be a false dawn as Korea scored just two more goals from open play and conceded in their five matches, with plenty of goals as a result. direct result of careless turnovers.
“Korea was dragged by the opposing team in every match except the first group match against Bahrain,” commentator Kim Oh-Seong said after the tournament. “Regardless of whether they faced a weak or strong team, they seemed to rely on the individual skills of key players without a clear strategy.”
Despite having 66% possession in a 2-2 draw against Jordan in their second group match, the Taeguk Warriors were forced to salvage a point thanks to a Yazan Al-Arab own goal in time. discount. In the next match against Malaysia, where they needed a win to secure the lead in their group, they had 82% of the ball, but let the equalizer slip in injury time to end with a 3-3 draw.
Against Saudi Arabia in the round of 16, they spent almost an hour between shots on goal and needed a dramatic 99th-minute equalizer from Cho Gue-Sung and a penalty shootout to advance with the cracks well covered. Then, for the second time in a row, the Taeguk Warriors benefited from an opponent who had tried to park the bus, as another late equalizer saved them against Australia before another Son set-piece goal in extra time sealed a 2-2 win. 1. .
However, in the semi-finals their luck ran out. Jordan coach Hussein Ammouta had a clear plan to win, preparing his team to attack with purpose in transition and disrupting Korea's attempts to find rhythm. Despite having 69.6% of the possession, Korea failed to get any shots on goal; Jordan, on the other hand, scored seven, with their first goal coming when Yazan al-Naimat capitalized on a terrible back pass from Park Yong-woo, before Musa al-Taamari made it 2-0 shortly after.
Klinsmann apparently gained very little from the two teams' previous meeting in the group stage, and his tactical approach was cited by the National Team Committee, an advisory body to the KFA, when they recommended his dismissal on Thursday.
“Regardless of the match results, throughout the tournament it was not clear what kind of football the coach wanted to play,” commentator Park Moon-Seong said in Korean media JoongAng. “There is a big difference between having a goal and not being able to achieve it properly and setting the goal itself without being clear.”
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Klinsmann: I don't want to always leave it so late!
South Korea coach reacts to South Korea's Asian Cup quarter-final victory against Australia thanks to a late equalizer and extra-time win.
So it was quite easy to see why the majority of people with a voice in Korean football were openly calling for the federation to fire Klinsmann, creating a situation where the KFA almost had to act despite the significant costs involved in doing so. And the news arrived timely on Friday.
“Klinsmann has not demonstrated the management capacity and leadership expected of a national coach in areas ranging from tactics, personnel management to work attitude and others necessary to provide competitiveness to the team,” said the president of the KFA, Chung Mong-Gyu, in a statement. “Klinsmann's attitude and competitiveness as head coach did not meet people's expectations and it was agreed that this would not improve in the future, so we have decided to change the leadership before the World Cup qualifying matches. 2026”.
Klinsmann himself was not in Seoul to hear the decision in person, having returned home to California just days after the elimination. While he posted a farewell message on his social media channels, making sure to mention a 13-game unbeaten streak the team experienced during his tenure, the lack of time spent in South Korea was one of the many reasons why he was so unpopular with the fans.
Even in the brief period after the Asian Cup ended, when his job was at stake and resentment towards him was at its peak, he spent two days in South Korea, during which he reiterated his insistence that he would not give up office. his post and he appeared on a video link in front of the National Team Committee, before returning to the United States.
In the end, this seems to have sealed his reputation in Korea as a “work-from-home coach”, who did not adequately care for the responsibility and honor that came with the position. A lightning rod for anger even before the Asian Cup began, Klinsmann's failure to bring out the best in a group widely regarded as Korea's golden generation – more talented even than the team that reached the Cup semi-finals 2002 World Cup at home – – wasted a great opportunity to end a 64-year continental trophy drought.
