Son and Lee's brawl ruined our efforts

Mr. Andreas Herzog - assistant coach of coach Klinsmann said that the conflict between Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in created discord, destroying the efforts of the coaching staff to build the team.

" No one expected that the night before the important match (semi-final with Jordan), a conflict broke out between two top stars, Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in. That fight affected the spirit of the whole team. Everything we had built for months was destroyed in just a few minutes ," the Austrian assistant shared after receiving the news of his dismissal.

Besides, Mr. Andreas Herzog blamed the Korean media for constantly scrutinizing and looking for bad things about the team , "the media only looks for negative things".

Mr. Andreas Herzog (left) and coach Klinsmann.

Mr. Andreas Herzog is a close assistant to coach Jurgen Klinsmann. From 2011 to 2016, he also worked as an assistant to the German coach in the US team.

Despite his dismissal, Andreas Herzog insisted that the coaching staff had done well. The South Korean team had gone 13 games unbeaten before losing to Jordan in the semi-finals. Herzog added that they still had the support of the president of the Korea Football Association (KFA), Chung Mong-gyu.

" The public pressure on the president of the Korean Football Association is huge. He has always supported us but in the end had to give in. This is regrettable ," said the assistant.

Previously, Mr. Chung Mong-gyu received much criticism from the Korean media. He was said to have arbitrarily appointed coach Jurgen Klinsmann without following the recruitment process of the National Team Strengthening Committee. This committee held an emergency meeting on February 15 and proposed to fire the German coach because he was not capable of leading the team.

On February 16, Mr. Chung affirmed: " Coach Klinsmann did not demonstrate the coaching and leadership abilities expected in the position of head coach of the national team, including match control, player management and work attitude ."

On February 17, answering Spiegel, coach Klinsmann said: " From a sporting perspective, that result is a success. We brought the spirit of not giving up into the matches. The two matches against Saudi Arabia and Australia were too dramatic. But in the end, Korea was eliminated by Jordan ."

Van Hai

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