South Korea Falls Flat Against Japan in Final EAFF Encounter | OneFootball

For Japan, it was their first EAFF E1 Championship title since 2013, snapping the three tournament winning streak for Korea in the process.  Now, both team will look ahead to September when they go through their final tuneups for the World Cup in Qatar.  Both teams have difficult draws ahead.  South Korea is in Group H with Portugal, Ghana, and Uruguay.  Japan, meanwhile, is in Group E with Spain, Costa Rica, and Germany.

Bento Under Pressure

Paulo Bento now has some questions to answer in the coming months before the World Cup with regards to the talent level and depth of his squad.  Identical 3-0 wins against China and Hong Kong did little to measure the worth of the squad chosen for this competition, and that was proven in the loss to Japan.  What can be seen is that the quality of players in the J League is higher than the quality of players in the K League based on what was seen on Wednesday night.

There are several reasons for this, including more investment in football in Japan, better facilities, and a more competent football federation.  Fans and fan chapters are a fixture in Japanese football.  The same is not the case in Korea, where marketing the game has failed to attract fans in bigger numbers on a consistent basis for more than several years.  Football infrastructure in Japan far outdistances its Korean counterpart by a considerable margin, and there is really no comparison between the two federations - the KFA is mired in difficulties at the moment, stemming from the departure of Kim Pan-gon to take on the head coaching position with the Malaysian national team, just one of a long list of concerning issues needing to be dealt with, with incompetent officials and a scattered bureaucracy, and overall limited structure and a lack of will to improve the situation among the greatest shortcomings.

Then, the question of Bento must also be addressed.  His team selection has been criticized for quite some time now, as he continues to rely on the same players from one international window to the next, and it hasn't brought consistent results.  Several players did have their international debuts this time around, but will they be in the national team picture in the future?  One would have to think not.  The manager also will have to get together with his staff and have a hard review of his tactical setup and tweak a few things to improve the overall possession game and the passing language on the pitch.

Korea is still in need of a sure-fire number one striker.  Could it be Cho Gue-sung going forward?  He had his moments in Japan but was nowhere to be found against the hosts, in part because the service into him was almost non-existent.  He needs a better supporting cast to be effective, and that should be an area of focus as the team now sets its sights on preparations for Qatar.