If someone asks me about my favorite sport, I answer the question without hesitating: "My favorite sport is soccer." I have interest in soccer all the time. I thought that Korean soccer is the best of Asia, because we have participated in the World Cup four times. It's evidence of being top among Asian countries, but a few months ago, an Asian Cup game showed me that our country is top grade no longer.
        Why did Korean soccer fall down? Our soccer players have only a fighting spirit without ability. In the case of Europe and Japan, they have youth leagues where elementary and middle school students can play every week, but Korean players in elementary, middle, and high school enter competitions with only a few months preparation, and then when they don't perform well they are not given any more chances. Also, in the case of Japan, their young players are sent to other advanced nations to learn to play soccer. Japan got the first prize in the 2000 Asian Cup. They achieved success in the Asian Cup, while Korean young players always play by themselves without being sent to advanced nations. So, in this Asian cup, we ranked third.
        Because of this, Korean soccer needs to be rebuilt. First af all, we need to change our head coach. I'm not really blaming our coaching staff, but I just hope for a different style from what they have used until now. I think that the fastest way to improve is bringing in a foreign coach with much experience in international games using the European or Brazilian model. So we should learn advanced soccer through him. The second suggestion is more support for Korean young players. We need to send our players to train in other nations as Japan does. Also, we need more soccer stadiums for the 2002 World Cup so that Korean soccer players can practice anywhere and anytime. The third suggestion is that we need to notice our soccer level. Many Koreans think our soccer teams ought to win all the time, because Koreans do not forgive them when they lose a game. If the Korean soccer team loses a game, we have to give encouragement to our soccer players without blaming them.
        We don't have much time until the 2002 World Cup. Korean soccer needs to have team members come together over regular intervals to train and enter competitions as a team and steadily get regular practice for the 2002 World Cup. The 2002 World Cup is very important to us. That is, success in the World Cup will be the pride of Korean soccer. Certainly, Korean soccer is in a state of crisis, so we need to form our World Cup team now. I hope that our team will have good results.