“I take responsibility for the results. I will maintain the current style of soccer for the players’ growth.”

Byun Sung-hwan, head coach of the South Korea U-17 men’s national team, has vowed to stick to the aggressive, build-up football he has been playing at the World Cup.

On the 30th, 21 of Byun’s “Little Taeguk Warriors” gathered at the Paju National Training Center (NFC) in Gyeonggi.

The purpose was to give the team a final warm-up before the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia from Nov. 10 to Dec. 2.

In Korean soccer, where the stakes are so high for the national team, it’s common to judge the performance of age-group teams based on a “win-now” mentality.

This is why the Korean national team usually focuses on ‘practical soccer’ even in age-group international competitions, which are also a ‘learning experience’.

However, Byun Sung-hwan seems to be trying something different.

Byun prefers to play the kind of soccer that former A team coach Paulo Bento used to play: attacking from the back.

He wants to play an aggressive, no-holds-barred style of soccer to take on some of the world’s biggest teams at the World Cup.

“I’m definitely going to play my football,” Byun told reporters before the first training session of the day, “I think the direction we want to go and our style of play has been fully recognized at the Asian Cup. In the World Cup, we will play our style no matter who we face,” he said.

“Whether it’s against the United States or France, we’re going to play to the best of our abilities, while maintaining our own style.”

Byun continued to play attacking football at the U-17 Four Nations Friendly in Marbella, Spain, from Nov. 11-17, where the team earned one draw and two losses against powerhouses like England, Morocco, and Belgium.

We scored in every game, and even scored multiple goals against Morocco (2-3 loss) and Belgium (3-3 draw), but we didn’t win. They often lost the ball in the buildup. 스포츠토토

This hasn’t changed Byun’s soccer philosophy.

“Through the process of making mistakes, kids definitely grow. I want our players to grow up and have the ability to compete with their 19-year-old brothers. They should be selected for the Olympic and Asian Games. It’s more important to see how many of them can be selected for the A team.”