Hush! I Will Be Back to Win

“I’m so busy.”

One of Tae-guk warriors of the 2002 World Cup, Park Ji-seong (23-year-old, PSV Eindhoven), is as busy as a bee. The Olympic team, in addition to his own club and the World Cup team, have brought him along to play for their respective teams.

Park was suddenly picked up for a match against China at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on March 3, the first game of Group A in the 2004 Athens Olympic Asian final preliminary. He will return to Korea in only 10 days after participating in the exhibition match against Oman for the World Cup team (on March 15) and the match against Lebanon in the second preliminary for 2006 Germany World Cup (on 18th) by Umberto Coelho’s call.

He is scheduled to arrive in Korea on March 2, the day before the game. Such an unnatural draw means that the Olympic team is in an urgent situation. Coach Kim Ho-gon believes that Park is necessary for beating China, which has tried to beat Korea since its Olympic team was crushed 0-2 against Japan on February 21.

Park will play a game against Perugia for UEFA Cup in Italy on February 27 and will also take part in the game against Roda JC of Holland League on February 29 before coming to Korea. It’s a terrible schedule for him. He has to fly 36,000 km consisting of two round trips in order to join the World Cup team and Olympic team because it’s over 9000 km from Netherlands to Korea. Also, adding 3,000 km of traveling in Italy plus a schedule in domestic league, he is on a tough march in which he has to travel 40,000 km in only one month.

This shows that Park is absolutely critical for winning. After Guus Hiddink made the “Final Four Achievement” in the 2002 World Cup, he took Park with him into PSV Eindhoven as his favorite player.

Park is the epitome of a multi-skilled player who can play all positions including attacking midfielder, defensive midfielder, wings, and shadow striker. In particular, he is excellent in terms of oppressing the play in midfield and passing cleverly.

Coach Kim will put Park in the position of an attacking midfielder or a shadow striker which are considered the weak points of the Olympic team.

It is not clear that Park will perform well although he is faced with a time-difference problem and hasn’t practiced with teammates together. But Park promised saying, “I will do my best to bring joy to the people.”