The unthinkable becomes reality

"Did I hear what rumour? Its not a rumour my boy, it's a reality."

The Phnom Penh Post today broke the rumour that Lee Tae-Hoon will soon return as the coach of the Cambodia national team. This just about takes the biscuit. Lee Tae-Hoon's previous 22-month stint in charge was a disaster. Since he's been away - he left in the middle of 2012 - he's been coaching with some youth teams in his native South Korea and yet he tells PPP that: "I know most of the players and I have been watching them. I have some fresh ideas and let's see." Presumably those fresh ideas will include throwing his former coaching manual out into the dustbin and starting with a blank sheet of paper.

Let me repeat a post I made at the time of his departure, in June 2012.
As football is a results-driven sport, let's take a look at Lee Tae-Hoon's twenty-two months in charge of the Cambodian team, following his arrival in August 2010, through the results his teams achieved. In competitive football, his selections played 21 matches, winning four times, drawing three and losing 14 games. They scored 29 goals and conceded 54. The competitions included the AFF Suzuki Cup, AFC Challenge Cup, FIFA World Cup, Mekong BIDC Cup, SEA Games and the Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy. His teams also played what could be classed as serious friendly matches. In these, his record was played 8, won 1, drawn 1 and lost six, scoring 6 goals and conceding 16. I haven't included the results of  another 15+ matches which his teams played against Metfone C-League clubs as warm-up games. Obviously, results don't tell the whole story, and I have covered in depth in many previous posts about my thoughts on his selections, his tactics and his results. I won't go over old ground again. Suffice to say I wasn't his greatest fan and really felt that he lost the plot when he gave such scant importance to our World Cup qualifying ambitions in 2011. That was simply inexcusable. Here are the results in black and white:

Competition Results:
22 Oct 2010 v Laos (AFF Suzuki Cup) Away. Drew 0-0
24 Oct 2010 v Timor Leste (AFF Suzuki Cup) Away. Won 4-2 Borey 3, Sinoun
26 Oct 2010 v Philippines (AFF Suzuki Cup) Away. Drew 0-0
9 Feb 2011 v Macau (AFC Challenge Cup Qual) Home. Won 3-1 El Nasa 2, Laboravy
16 Feb 2011 v Macau (AFC Challenge Cup Qual) Away. Lost 2-3 Borey, El Nasa
21 Mar 2011 v Maldives (AFC Challenge Cup) Away. Lost 0-4
23 Mar 2011 v Tajikistan (AFC Challenge Cup) Away. Lost 0-3
25 Mar 2011 v Kyrgyzstan (AFC Challenge Cup) Away. Lost 3-4 Sokumpheak, Rithy
29 Jun 2011 v Laos (World Cup Qual) Home. Won 4-2 Laboravy, El Nasa 2, Sokumpheak
3 Jul 2011 v Laos (World Cup Qual) Away. Lost 2-6 aet Chhoeun, Sokumpheak
9 Oct 2011 v Laos (Mekong BIDC Cup) Home. Won 2-0 Soksana, Laboravy
12 Oct 2011 v Myanmar (Mekong BIDC Cup) Home. Drew 2-2 Udom pen, Saray
14 Oct 2011 v Thailand (Mekong BIDC Cup) Home. Lost 1-2 Sovan
7 Nov 2011 v Indonesia (SEA Games) Away. Lost 0-6
9 Nov 2011 v Singapore (SEA Games) Away. Lost 1-2 Chhoeun
11 Nov 2011 v Thailand (SEA Games) Away. Lost 0-4
13 Nov 2011 v Malaysia (SEA Games) Away. Lost 1-4 Chhoeun
25 Feb 2012 v Brunei (Hassanal Bolkiah Trophy) Away. Lost 2-3 Udom pen, Vathanaka
27 Feb 2012 v Vietnam (HBT) Away. Lost 1-2 Vathanaka
29 Feb 2012 v Timor Leste (HBT) Away. Lost 0-1
5 Mar 2012 v Malaysia (HBT) Away. Lost 1-3 Sothearath
Record: Pld 21 Won 4 Drew 3 Lost 14 Goals For 29 Agst 54

Friendlies:
18 Sep 2010 v Vietnam U-23 Away. Lost 0-2
21 Sep 2010 v Vietnam U-23 Away. Lost 0-3
5 Dec 2010 v Ulsan University Home. Lost 1-4 own goal
7 Jun 2011 v Malaysia Olympic XI Home. Won 1-0 Laboravy
28 Oct 2011 v Nepal U-23 Home. Lost 0-1
14 Jan 2012 v Malaysia U-23 Home. Lost 0-1
27 Jan 2012 v Ulsan University Home. Drew 3-3 Vathanaka, Chhoeun, S Udom
29 Jan 2012 v Ulsan University Home. Lost 1-2 Vathanaka

Record: Pld 8 Won 1 Drew 1 Lost 6 Goals For 6 Agst 16

Obviously, I have a lot more I want to say on the subject, including commenting on a wave of support for the coach from some of the football community on Facebook. I'm sorry to say that some people view any foreign coach, even an unsuccessful one, as better than the current coach Prak Sovannara or any Khmer for that matter. The fact that he's South Korean may even sway their judgement further, especially with the current Khmer penchant for all-things Korean. I do agree that a foreign coach is best suited to shake-up the current lethargy of Cambodian football on the international scene, but not one that has a proven track record of failure. Anyway, the PPP have broken the story so we'll have to wait to hear from the Federation themselves. Fat chance of that.