Coelho is Responsible for the Terrible Defeat in the Asian Cup

Coelho is Responsible for the Terrible Defeat in the Asian Cup. October. 23, 2003 22:59. by Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com.

The replacement for Coach Coelho is under discussion.

The Korea Football Association (KFA) is preparing to hold Coelho responsible for the disastrous defeats to Vietnam and Oman during the preliminary match of the 2004 Asian Cup.

Cho Jung-young, an executive director of KFA, who returned on October 23 after watching the Oman match, held a press conference in the conference room of the fifth floor of KFA Building, Sinmunno, Seoul, and revealed, “A general is responsible for the defeat in war. We are planning to examine Coelho’s replacement.”

Cho indicated that Coelho’s leadership is defective, saying, “Successive defeats to Vietnam and Oman was not due to the players’ lack of spirit or poor physical conditioning. Lack of time to practice or the schedule of the K League cannot be the reasons either.”

Cho added, “The players did their best. When the result is bad, the coach is responsible for it in both professional and academic teams. It is doubtful if the Korean team would play well in the final match of Asian Cup and in the preliminary match of 2006 World Cup in its present situation.”

KFA will convene a technique committee and decide the subject of replacement of Coelho upon Korea team’s return on October 26.

However, Cho made his opinion clear that “KFA is not responsible for this situation.” For the question “Just like when the technique committee appointed Park Hang-seo as a coach of the Korean representative team and replaced him immediately for the poor performance in the Asian Games last year, will you just replace Coelho this time without placing any responsibility on KFA?”, Cho stressed that there is no problem for supporting Coelho, answering, “The members of technique committee work hard as volunteers.”

Regarding the question addressing the team members’ discord between World Cup players and non-World Cup players, he stated “It was a rumor. Our players have no problem and have good relations with each other.”

Meanwhile, regarding some press reports that Coelho insisted”to attribute the responsibility to players and fulfill his contract”, he spurned it, saying “I have never heard that news when I was abroad, and Coelho is not such a man to attribute the reason of defeat to the players.”