After a long flight to Jeju Island in South Korea and meeting dozens of fans (one of whom was this writer) at the airport, Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany did not rest. Instead, he put his team through a light training session in scalding heat before going to a rather unlikely location — his first ever K League game (this writer assumes).
Kompany was sort of a guest of honor at Jeju SK’s league fixture against Incheon United. The Belgian’s trip was not in vain, as both teams played out a highly
entertaining 3-3 draw.
The day after, Kompany commented on his findings. As captured by @iMiaSanMia, he said: “I find it interesting to watch teams that have a completely different environment than we do. I was interested in the players, in the ideas they have. If you look at the second or third division in England, it’s more about tackling and winning the second ball, a different pressing style — less about building up play. Yesterday, I didn’t know what to expect in the Korean league.”
He went on to describe the game in more detail: “It was a complete game; there weren’t many phases without control. If you look at the build-up phases – the conditions were difficult, the pitch wasn’t ideal, the heat – and yet you see a very clean style of play, tactically very sound, both teams want to solve things through pressing. Sometimes they leave a man behind for safety. It’s interesting to see how both teams adapted to that,” he said. “Set pieces played a big role; two goals came from them. And the intensity was very high for 90 minutes in the heat, which I found very interesting. It was fun to watch.”
Interestingly enough, this is not Kompany’s first experience with Korean football. He actually faced South Korea in the 2014 World Cup, although he sat out the match due to injury. Belgium won the match 1-0 despite being a man down.
Kompany’s team will be playing Jeju SK tomorrow, and it remains to be seen how both teams will prepare and perform with only a day to recover from a long flight and a grueling game – and whether Kompany’s reconnaissance mission will have any positive effects.
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