AFC Asian Cup: angry South Korea boss Klinsmann says he won’t resign despite team’s semi-final defeat to Jordan
- Jurgen Klinsmann says he accepts responsibility for loss, but is now focused on country’s World Cup qualifying campaign
- Fans blast coach on social media for smiling at the end of game when he congratulated opposite number Lhoussaine Ammouta
Jurgen Klinsmann said he would not resign as South Korea boss despite accepting responsibility for his side’s failure to break a 64-year Asian Cup drought.
South Korea were dumped out of the competition in Qatar on Tuesday by Jordan, who won the semi-final 2-0 and await the winner’s of Wednesday match between Iran and the defending champion hosts.
Second half goals from Yazan Al Naimat and Mousa Al Tamari where enough to sink Son Heung-min and company at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, meaning South Korea’s barren run with extend to 2027 at least, when the tournament is held in Saudi Arabia.
“A coach is always responsible for how a tournament goes for a team. Our goal was to go to the final and we didn’t get to the final,” Klinsmann said.
“I’m planning to analyse this tournament, go with the team back to Korea and then talk with the federation about what was good and what was not so good.
“There is a team that is growing, but we still have to develop towards the World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada in the next 2½ years. We have a difficult qualifying campaign so there is a lot of work ahead of us and other than that I’m not thinking about anything.”
The defeat brought an end to the tournament for the Koreans in which they conceded 10 goals in six games as Klinsmann’s fortune finally ran out.
The German’s team had scored crucial goals deep into added time in four of their previous five matches, including equalisers in their last 16 and quarter-final match-ups with Saudi Arabia and Australia respectively, but there was to be no escape this time around.
After the Koreans had survived a first half dominated by the Jordanians, Al Naimat delivered a deserved opener eight minutes after the break.
Montpellier forward Tamari, the golden boy of Jordanian football, intercepted Park Yong-woo’s attempted pass back to Kim Young-gwon and set off towards goal, slipping the ball into the path of Al Naimat, and he clipped a measured finish over the diving Jo Hyeon-woo.
There was better to come 13 minutes later, as Tamari went from provider to scorer, picking up possession on the halfway line following Hwang In-beom’s error and drove towards goal to bend a left-footed shot from 25 yards around Jo and into the corner.
The attacking trio of Son, Hwang Hee-chan and Lee Kang-in were largely anonymous as the Jordanians pressured a midfield showing the effects of back-to-back matches that had gone to extra-time.
Klinsmann was blasted online for repeatedly smiling as he congratulated Jordan’s Moroccan coach Lhoussaine Ammouta for guiding his team into the nation’s first Asian Cup final.
“I am very disappointed, I’m angry because we should have done better tonight,” Klinsmann said. “Our pregame talk was very clear on how to accept the battles, the one-on-one situations.
“We wanted to approach it tactically right away from the beginning. We did not exist in the first 20, 30 minutes and that’s why I say Jordan wanted it more.
“But when the game is over and I congratulate another coach personally I don’t think it’s a big deal [to smile]. I’m certainly not walking around tonight here and smiling all over the place.
“There were reasons we lost this game and you have to accept those reasons. But when the other team shows more on the field, which they did, then you have to give them respect.”
