World Cup Special Episode 2: Korea vs. Czechia Preview

Right then, so let's move on to, basically, Korea begin their World Cup campaign on Friday for people in Korea, Thursday for people in Mexico or stateside.

It's quite a contrasting mood in the camp, it seems, compared to Korea's last big tournament, the Asian Cup under Jürgen Klinsmann.

Yeah, and I think it's both an overstated and understated part of football, the mood in the camp.

I think it's overstated in the sense of you can't just say, well, look, they've got smiles on their faces, they're going to go far.

But at the same time, I think when you look at what it was like, where there were leaks coming out about fights, leaks coming out about arguments, leaks coming out about people weren't happy with the fact he wasn't attending K-League games, for Klinsmann, that is, I think it is nice and it's refreshing to see, you know, those smiles you see in the videos of them training.

And it looks like a cohesive unit.

And, you know, it's nice to hear in press conferences, they're talking about team day out, team days off, days out and things like that.

Because that to me suggests...

And I think it's why Hong Myung-ho was brought in, was to almost kind of halt the slide they were potentially going to go down.

And it's an odd analogy, but I liken it to a topic close to my heart, unfortunately, which is hair loss of Klinsmann was almost like a receding hairline.

And the things you can do after a receding hairline is either you can just let it keep going or you can take steps.

And I'm not saying current career is a hair transplant, which is the cure-all solution.

Unfortunately, they're not going to get the long flow and locks of the 2002 World Cup back just yet.

But it's like there's treatments like finasteride, like minoxidil, which can thicken up and strengthen.

It's a roundabout way of saying a safe pair of hands that can – you know stop the hair loss and in the case of they're not going to crash out embarrassingly i don't think of this world cup i think they are going to give a good account of themselves um and it's that thing if i think that's what he's been brought in to do which is arguably it's not exciting because you said in the last podcast some people are saying this is a golden generation for Korea and do you really want maybe a safe pair of hands for your golden generation or do you want someone who can maybe play a bit more exciting football But I think you look even towards England, Gareth Southgate was hardly a master tactician, but a lot of the good that he did was culturally and about creating that positive family-like atmosphere and seeing how that translated onto the pitch.

And I think that might be a benefit for South Korea.

Yeah, and Hong will want to avoid the same mistakes that he made in 2014.

So there's lessons learned, I think, from himself, lessons learned from within the KFA of what happened at the AFC Asian Cup and all that sort of stuff.

So, yeah, it's a good point.

And it does look as though there is a good team spirit there.

let's let's see how it all begins in this first group stage game now the first game is it's like the first game of a new season in a long league campaign but it's in a sense that the way you begin the manner in which you win or lose or even draw or whatever will set the tone or can set the tone for the rest of the group or the rest of the season now this first game it's so important that Korea at least just play well.

Avoiding defeat will be probably the first port of call, but they have to play well.

And that really will be what they need to sort of get fans back on side who maybe have been a bit apathetic towards the national team of late.

And of course, the team as well.

They've got this good spirit, seemingly, from what we've seen.