(World Cup) Coaching great Zaccheroni calls S. Korea among 'best teams in Asia'

By Yoo Jee-ho

AL RAYYAN, Qatar, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- Having coached in Asia in the final decade of his illustrious career, Italian great Alberto Zaccheroni still keeps tabs on football in the region.

And the 69-year-old believes South Korea, his opponents for a few years as Japan's bench boss, are among "the best teams in Asia."

"Korea are a bit different compared with Japan. Korea are going more toward the physical action," Zaccheroni said Saturday through an interpreter during a media briefing with FIFA's Technical Study Group (TSG), of which he is a member with six other former coaches and players during the ongoing FIFA World Cup. "The image that I have of Korea is that, together with Japan, they're the best teams in Asia."

Zaccheroni coached Japan from 2010 to 2014 and won the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup in 2011, after knocking off South Korea in the semifinals. He said he hasn't been surprised by some good early returns from Asian teams in Qatar, highlighted by Saudi Arabia's 2-1 win over Argentina and Japan's 2-1 victory over Germany.

"These results aren't so surprising for me, because football has developed in many places and many countries," Zaccheroni said. "Performances are higher everywhere."

Another Asian team, Iran, bounced back from a 6-2 defeat to England with a 2-0 win over Wales on Friday. South Korea, on the other hand, had a scoreless draw with Uruguay to begin their Group H play Thursday.

After all 32 teams played their first matches of the group stage through Thursday, there were four goalless draws. Both Zaccheroni and another TSG member, former Nigeria international Sunday Oliseh, attributed those numbers to cautious approaches by teams.

"Teams don't want to take too many risks in the beginning," Oliseh said during the session at the Main Media Centre in Al Rayyan, just west of Doha, noting many teams have played five-man defense.

"Clearly, numerous teams were relatively cautious in their approach and didn't want to lose the first game," Zaccheroni chimed in. "A number of teams had five-man defense, very tight and compact. They were trying to get a point, and if a chance came along, they might have tried to take it. As the tournament progresses, we'll begin to see teams become braver."

The TSG panel also discussed three key strategic points after the opening 16 group matches: teams' play over high press, counter-press with multiple players and setting up goals with crosses.

Prior to the start of the tournament, the TSG had said high pressing had become a global trend in football and that it was interested in seeing how teams would counter that.

It turns out teams who lose possession of the ball against pressing have immediately counter-pressed to win the ball back.

And quick counter-pressing has several advantages, Zaccheroni said.

"The big advantage of winning the ball high in the pitch is you have the short route to the goal," the ex-coach said. "By immediately pressing the opposition, you don't have to chase back toward your own goal. You only have to beat one line of opposition players. It's very taxing physically, but you now have five substitutions available (as opposed to three in the past). That means half the outfield players."

Through the first 16 matches this year, the TSG said 14 crosses have led to goals and 56 crosses have led to attempts on target. In comparison, only three crosses resulted in goals and 35 crosses led to shot attempt on target after the same number of matches in 2018.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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