The story of Son Heung - Min and the lesson of solidarity

It turns out that with top-level football, the ball stopping rolling does not mean "the end of the story", but on the contrary, there are always many interesting and attractive things waiting ahead.

The latest story that has the entire football world abuzz is related to Son Heung-Min and the defeat of the Korean National Team in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup against the Jordan National Team (0-2). Obviously, despite continuously facing difficulties in the matches against Jordan in the group stage (2-2), against Australia in the round of 16 (1-1, 4-2 on penalties), the Korean National Team with its top stars playing in the top European football leagues is still rated higher than the Jordan National Team. Many people have even "dreamed" of a dream final and Korea will be crowned according to the bumpy but happy ending scheme often seen in football.

But then all predictions were wrong, even very wrong when the Jordan team dominated the game, scoring 2 goals evenly in both halves and not giving Son Heung-Min a chance to shoot on target. No one recognized the Korean team with its great fighting spirit until the extra time in the previous 2 matches. There was also no sign of the timely leadership and brilliance of Captain Son Heung-Min, the high-class accelerations or free kicks of Lee Kang In or Hwang Hee-chan. It turned out that before the semi-final, the simmering conflicts between the older players and the younger players had a chance to flare up and a conflict broke out. Because they tried to stop the younger players from hastily finishing dinner to go play table tennis, Son Heung-Min and Lee Kang-In got into a fight, resulting in Son breaking his finger. Son later even asked Lee not to be allowed on the field in the semi-final (but the player playing for PSG was still present).

Only then did everyone realize: The unity, solidarity, and community of strength in the Korean team had broken down, causing the team to fragment, lose its cohesion, attack power, flexibility, and each person searched for the ball in a different way, leading to becoming more harmless, loose, and easier to defeat than ever.

It turns out that even the Korean team, which played in the semi-finals of the World Cup, is a “regular” at every World Cup as well as continental tournaments, and has dozens of players shining in Europe… can still become mediocre just because of a lack of internal unity, and “kick” themselves in the foot at important and decisive moments. Good expertise is necessary and required in every top team, but if there is a lack of unity, if they do not look together in the same direction, the same goal, then they are just a scattered, harmless group of lonely stars.

During the competition at the 2023 Asian Cup, it is difficult to say who is the best and who is the worst in the Korean squad, but clearly, many stars are not enough to make an invincible team. Korea continuously conceded first goals, then attacked "to the death" to equalize the score and take the lead thanks to the class of the stars. Meanwhile, the Japanese team has the most foreign stars, but it seems that they are not called by the right bright names for a tournament, especially the goalkeeper and defense positions. From there, despite being extremely united and trying, Japan still lost the match due to individual mistakes in the closing moments and nerve-wracking moments.

It is also worth mentioning that, in the process of reaching new heights, many football teams in developing countries have long looked to the "model" of Japan and Korea to learn and follow, including Thailand and Vietnam. Obviously, these two football backgrounds have made great strides in development, especially in training a rich source of players capable of competing well in the top football tournaments in Asia and Europe as seen. And learning from Japan and Korea is correct and necessary, although it is not easy to learn and follow. But besides that, it is also necessary to see that any football background has its own internal problems, its own difficulties, at one time or another, to solve well and not to solve well.

For example, Brazil does not lack excellent players but always lacks a worthy strategist. Germany is going through a generational transition so they are not playing well even though they do not lack good coaches. Japan and Korea are approaching world level but do not have good coaches to take their teams further than before. Teams like China, Thailand, Vietnam... are lacking in human resources, material resources, and the level of both players and coaches, so they need to have a long-term strategy to improve the quality of players, from youth training, increasing competition, and the quality of national tournaments... And we cannot forget the issue of solidarity, fighting for the flag and the colors of the country as Mr. Calisto or Mr. Park Hang-seo have done as a very appropriate lesson for the next generation.

The fact that many key players were injured (some say fake injuries?) and did not participate in the recent ASIAN Cup is something that cannot be taken lightly or ignored, even if it is only 1% true. The hot lesson about Son Heung-Min's "broken finger" in the Korean National Team, which is receiving worldwide attention and concern, is a valuable lesson, a lesson to be learned by heart for any top team in the continent or any team in the lowlands. Good expertise alone is not enough. Will alone is not enough either. It must be a harmonious and smooth combination to create collective strength, long-term strength.