Jeonbuk Hyundai’s trademark is “shut up and attack.”
Since Coach Choi Kang-hee, who completed the Jeonbuk Dynasty, said on Media Day in 2011, “Jeonbuk will hit and attack this year,” it has become a synonym for Jeonbuk. If one goal is scored, Jeonbuk will aim for two goals. Jeonbuk, with its Dakgong at the forefront, has built a “Jeonbuk Dynasty,” including an unprecedented five consecutive wins. Recently, the image of “Dakgong” has been tarnished due to poor performance, but “Shut Up and Attack” still rings at the Jeonju World Cup Stadium.
In that sense, the “fight of extinction” against Incheon United on Tuesday was very unfamiliar. Facing the lowest rank, Jeonbuk showed no will to attack, let alone “clap ball” at its home game of Jeonju Castle. On the day, the team recorded only one shot on target. The team was inferior to the market share of 43:57. Of course, it was a brinkmanship match where the team fell to the bottom of the ground, but it was not enough to say that Jeonbuk was passive on the day. The team focused on blocking the opponent’s attack while camping out from its own side. It seemed that they gave up putting in order not to eat it.
There was a chance for the team to win, but Kim did not change his mind. Kim added some of the best strikers in the league, including Ahn Deul-go, Jeon Byeong-kwan, Lee Seung-woo and Thiago, in the second half. In particular, they seemed to display a winning move by putting in Lee and Thiago at the same time at the 32nd minute of the second half. Surprisingly, however, their role was not to attack but to defend. Lee did not even make a single attempt, let alone break through the dribble. Thiago displayed a dribbling miss that made his fans sigh.
The result was an all-time “graduation match” that blew the 0-0. Of course, the crowd booed. Supporters shouted, “Kim Doo-hyun, get out!” after the match. “It was a match that we couldn’t lose, and I thought the priority was not to make room for Incheon as the team is playing soccer to counterattack. As we responded to the situation, we regret that we could not save the team even if there was a timing to counterattack. We could have done it aggressively, but there were some areas where we could give the opponent a chance. We tried to solve it by changing players, but it didn’t go well,” Kim said after the match.
Even if he focused on not losing, Kim’s response on this day was regrettable. Instead of aiming for the 9th place, which is the right to remain stable, he made an extremely conservative judgment that he would avoid the bottom, causing the worst game. 스포츠토토
Jeonbuk has no goals in the past three games. It also had no goals in the matches against Daejeon (0-2) and Jeju (0-1) that it played before the match against Incheon. Since it had 29 shots fired in matches against Daejeon and Jeju and its expected score value exceeded three goals, Kim may blame his lack of determination and luck. However, it is also necessary to have all of the professional strikers who can score goals on the bench and put the midfielders up to look back on the decision to manage the strikers who focused on mobility. Even if the team fails to meet its goal, Jeonbuk ranks 11th.
Of course, it is difficult to display the same “Dak-gong” as in the past at the moment when Korea is on the verge of being demoted, but if a squad like Jeonbuk is home, it should show the minimum willingness to score a goal. Only then can Korea win and stay. Dak-gong’s motto is “The best defense is offense.”