South Korea women’s national soccer team head coach Colleen Bell, 62, has vowed to build on the courage she showed against Germany to rebuild quickly.
Bell’s side finished bottom of Group H at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 with a 1-1 draw and two points, failing to reach the last 16.
Back-to-back lethargic performances against Colombia (0-2) and Morocco (0-1) put a red flag on the team’s chances of making it out of the group stage early.
However, there was a glimmer of hope in the third and final game against Germany. Against the world’s second-ranked team, Germany, the team showed a good performance that largely compensated for the shortcomings of the previous two games, and drew 1-1 thanks to a goal from Cho So-hyun. With the unexpected draw against South Korea, Germany was eliminated from the group stage for the first time in Women’s World Cup history.
Bell, who had been outspoken about her disappointment in the previous two matches, was full of praise after the game.
“In the first two games we were too nervous, but against Germany we had a good turnaround and scored a great goal,” Bell said after the game.
“When we conceded the equalizer to Alexandra Pope, everyone probably thought it was over. But we kept fighting and skillfully neutralized the German attack. We didn’t let Germany scare us, and we never gave up, even when we had no hope.”
After a disappointing end to the group stage, Bell was quick to point to the next goal.
“If you look at the game against Germany, our players were good enough to qualify for the tournament. But in the end, we didn’t qualify. That’s why we have to look to the future and build a new team.”
Women’s soccer will have no time to rest on its laurels and will now look to qualify for its first Olympic Games at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September and Paris 2024. There’s a long way to go, with the so-called “golden generation” retiring from the game and the gap with world football still a challenge.
“We need to focus on making structural adjustments and new plans to become more professional,” Bell said, adding, “I saw courage and hope in the game against Germany. 한국야동 We need to make good decisions and start rebuilding immediately for the future of Korean soccer.”