SEOUL, 27 June — South Korea were bruised and exhausted after their wondrous passage to the semifinals of the World Cup but they must now face up to life after Guus Hiddink as their revered Dutch coach moves on to pastures new.
Hiddink turned a raw team more used to scrapping with weaker Asian opponents into a super-fit unit that embarrassed Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain to chalk up South Korea’s first four victories at a World Cup finals. Germany snuffed out their run at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on Friday as a visibly tiring Korean team ran out of steam and luck.
To the cheers of hundreds of thousands of disappointed fans, the Korean players climbed into their graffiti-covered bus and rode off to be united with their families, who they have hardly seen in four months of training camp and matches.
Striker Hwang Sun-hong paused to laugh off suggestions that Korea’s success was a flash in the pan.
“By coming as far as we did Korea is now among the top-ranking countries in the world,” Hwang said.
Skipper Hong Myung-bo has finished his international career on a high he could never have imagined when he first pulled on his country’s shirt against Norway in 1990. He reinforced the belief that Korea has earned new respect.
“The greatest achievement of this game was that we got a major boost in confidence. I just want to thank the Korean people,” he said.
Hiddink had failed in another World Cup semifinal, just as he did four years ago when he was in charge of the Holland team who were stopped in their tracks by Brazil.
He made positive noises about lifting the team for the third-place playoff on Saturday but he knows that fixture is largely meaningless.
“Of course we are disappointed tonight but we’ll recover. Now we have to go for third place. We have to swallow our defeat and lift ourselves for the next match,” said Hiddink.
That game in Daegu will almost certainly be Hiddink’s farewell to the team.
His mission when he took on the job in January 2001 was clear — whip the team into shape and guide them to qualification for the last 16. No one realistically expected them to reach the last four, becoming the first Asian side in history to do so.
The prospect of staying at the helm for the Asian Games later this year is unlikely to tempt Hiddink. One of his former clubs, PSV Eindhoven, have reportedly already secured his signature for next season.
Hiddink’s status as a national Korean hero is secure and so is his financial future because he has been promised a four-million-dollar bonus for his World Cup feats.
The rewards are symbolic too. The South Korean government said Tuesday that Hiddink will be the first foreigner to be granted honorary citizenship.
Perhaps the key to Korea’s future development will be who succeeds the Dutchman.
But whether anyone can replicate the ‘Hiddink Way’ as the team looks toward qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany is open to debate.
European agents will finally be allowed to get near his players to dangle contracts for clubs around the world.
Italian club Perugia made a U-turn and pleaded with pin-up striker Ahn Jung-hwan to return for next season despite knocking out Italy in the second round, while Atletico Madrid are said to be interested.
Asia salute South Korean success
South Korea’s spectacular World Cup run may have ended short of the final and been tinged by controversy but it has been cheered across the region as a coming of age for Asian football.
“South Korea, you are still the pride of Asia,” said the Vietnamese daily Thanh Nien following the co-host’s 1-0 loss to traditional powerhouse Germany in Tuesday’s semifinal in Seoul.
“What the South Korean players achieved in this competition will become history and a goal that all other Asian teams strive for in the next World Cup,” it said.
Bitter rival and World Cup co-host Japan swallowed its own disappointment and magnanimously praised South Korea’s achievement in becoming the first Asian side to reach the semifinals in the 72-year history of the tournament.
“Applause for Asia’s tiger,” read a headline in Japan’s leading daily Yomiuri Shimbun. “Korea’s best eleven, who fought it out with all their strength, were applauded by their proud countrymen and even Japan was deeply impressed,” Yomiuri said.
