Korean coaches dominate final four at AFF Championship

Korea may not be a member of the Asean Football Federation, but it’s looking increasingly likely that it will be a Korean that gets to lift the AFF Championship cup when the final ends on Jan. 16.

From left: Kim Pan-gon, Park Hang-seo and Shin Tae-yong [REUTERS; AP/YONHAP]

Korea may not be a member of the Asean Football Federation, but it’s looking increasingly likely that it will be a Korean that gets to lift the AFF Championship cup when the final ends on Jan. 16.

With the group stage now complete, three of the final four teams are led by Korean managers: Vietnam by Park Hang-seo, Indonesia by Shin Tae-yong and Malaysia by Kim Pan-gon.

Park may be Vietnamese football’s good luck charm, but at the AFF Championship his presence on the sidelines has proven to be very bad luck for his own countrymen.

Head coach Park led Vietnam to a first place finish in Group B, winning three games and drawing one against Singapore on Dec. 30.

Vietnam's head coach Park Hang-seo reacts during a match against Thailand at the Southeast Asian Games on May 22, 2022. [AP/YONHAP]

Vietnam topped the group with 10 points and a huge plus-12 goal difference, having avoided conceding a single goal throughout the entire tournament so far.

One of the teams Vietnam toppled in the group stage was Malaysia, led by Korean manager Kim. Park didn’t pull any punches in that game, winning 3-0 with a series of decisive goals from Nguyen Tien Linh, Que Ngoc Hai and Nguyen Hoang Duc.

That game was a rare chance to see two Korean managers clash outside of Korea, with Vietnam manager Park and Malaysia manager Kim well-known figures in Korean football, both it won’t be the only one.

Park and Vietnam now come up against Indonesia in the quarterfinals, led by Korean manager Shin.

Shin led Indonesia to finish second in Group A, slipping behind Thailand on goal difference only after both teams won three games and drew one — against each other on Dec. 29. Indonesia fell back to second on goal difference alone, having scored one less and conceded one more than Thailand.

Malaysia\ head coach Kim Pan-gon reacts during a qualifier match against Turkmenistan for the AFC Asian Cup 2023 on June 8, 2022. [AP/YONHAP]

The Park-Shin clash guarantees that there will be a Korean manager on the sidelines in the tournament final, although there could be two — Kim and the Malaysia squad finished second in Group B and face Group A winners Thailand on the other side of the bracket.

Of the three Korean coaches, Park has perhaps the highest profile, having been assistant coach of Korea during the 2002 World Cup. Since joining Vietnam Park has quickly become a national hero and the face of a momentous football reformation in Vietnam.

Park, who was also in charge of the U-23 side, started off leading Vietnam to the final of the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, beating stronger teams like Australia, Iraq and Qatar along the way. A couple of months later he led the senior team to the semifinals of the 2018 Asian Games, then followed that up with the win at the 2018 AFF Championship.

A year later, Vietnam reached the quarterfinals at the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and won a gold medal at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. Nearly all of these feats were either a first for Vietnam, or at least a first since the country was unified.

But the AFF Championship will be Park’s last tournament with Vietnam. He plans to step down after five years at the helm of the team in January next year.

Shin is also a very familiar face to Korean football fans. Capped 23 times for the national team as a player, Shin spent his entire Korea in the K League with Seongnam.

Indonesia coach Shin Tae-yong watches his squad take on Malaysia during the Southeast Asian Games on May 22, 2022. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

He later managed Seongnam, before briefly taking over as a caretaker manager for the national team in 2014 and assisting Uli Stielike until 2017. Shin managed both the Korean U23 and U20 teams, before taking the helm of the senior squad in 2017 and through the 2018 Russia World Cup.

He joined Indonesia in 2020, leading the team to the final of the AFF Championship that year. In 2022, Indonesia qualified for the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in 16 years.

Kim is a less prominent coach, having spent a large part of his playing career and his managerial career in Hong Kong. After years as a coach he entered the limelight in 2017 when he was appointed technical director of the Korea Football Association, taking responsibility for the recruitment of Korean national team coaches.

Kim spent five years with the Korean national team before being hired as head coach of the Malaysian squad in January this year. He has already seen some success in Vietnam, leading the squad to qualify for next year’s AFC Asian Cup for the first time in 42 years.

AFF Championship semifinals are played across two legs, with Park’s Vietnam and Shin’s Indonesia set to face off in their first leg on Friday. The second leg will be played on Monday.

Kim and the Malaysia squad will take on Thailand, led by Brazilian-German manager Alexandré Pölking, on Saturday, with the second leg to be played on Tuesday.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]