In the 37th round of the 2022 K-League tournament, Ulsan Hyundai won a come-from-behind 2-1 away victory over Gangwon FC to advance to the top of the table, ending a 17-year title drought and breaking Jeonbuk Hyundai's streak of five consecutive championships.
Ulsan Hyundai, as the "second of the millennium" in Korean soccer, has been the runner-up in the K-League for 10 times in its history, especially in the last three years, when they were always overthrown by Jeonbuk Hyundai, despite the fact that they were in a good position.
Hong Myung-bo, the Ulsan Hyundai boss, delivered on the promise he made when he took over the team.
"We've worked 17 years for this championship, and all season long I've been thinking, never again!"
Legendary players
Hong Myung-bo, a former captain and legendary defender of the South Korean national team, represented South Korea at the age of 21 at the 1990 International Cup in Italy, and then went on to play in consecutive International Cups in the United States in 1994, France in 1998, and South Korea-Japan in 2002, becoming the first player in the history of South Korean and Asian soccer to play in four consecutive International Cups.
In the group stage of the 1994 International Cup, facing Germany, South Korea was 0-3 down at one point, and after Hwang Sun-hong pulled a goal back, Hong Myung-bo faced Mateusz and blasted an international wave to tie the score at 2-3. Hong Myung-bo said that was the most beautiful goal and the most brilliant moment of his career.
In the 2002 Korea-Japan International Cup, Hong Myung-bo, as the captain, led South Korea to create a miracle at home, all the way to the quarterfinals, and won the "Bronze Ball Award" of the International Cup.
Hong scored the winning penalty in the quarter-final against Spain in a penalty shootout.
"That was the most important goal of my life, I never thought I would have such a great moment in my life!"
After the International Cup, Hong Myung-bo retired from the South Korean national team on merit.
In 2003, Hong transferred to LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer, and in 2004, Hong and Japanese star Hidetoshi Nakata were the only two representatives from Asia on the list of "100 Greatest Players of FIFA's Centennial Celebration" selected by Pele himself.
In October 2004, at the age of 35, Hong Mingfu announced his retirement.
He then transitioned into coaching, serving as an assistant coach for the Korean National Team and National Olympic Team from 2005-2008.
In 2009, Hong became the head coach of South Korea's U20 national youth team and led the team to the top 8 of the World Youth Championships; in the same year, he was promoted to be the head coach of South Korea's U23 national Olympic team, and led the team to participate in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and won the bronze medal.
During that period, Hong Myung-bo identified, developed and nurtured a number of young players for South Korea, such as Kim Young-gwon and Jang Hyun-soo.
In 2012, Hong led South Korea's U23 national Olympics to a bronze medal in the men's soccer competition at the London Olympics, tying the best Asian men's soccer Olympic result set by Japan at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
In the final moments of the bronze medal match against Japan, Hong sent in Kim Ki-hee, the only player with no previous playing experience, to ensure that all South Korean players were granted exemptions from military service.
The final whistle blew, Hong Mingfu and his disciples clad in national flags hugged each other tightly, the hard man on the pitch could not help but shed tears of excitement.
His coaching career peaked.
leave
However, what goes around comes around.
In June 2013, Hong succeeded Choi Kang-hee as head coach of the South Korean national team, signing a two-year deal that will see him lead the South Korean team to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and the 2015 Asian Cup.
As a result, the World Cup in Brazil, South Korea 1 draw 2 losses in the group stage, a disastrous exit, triggered South Korea's domestic media and fans slammed, the call for his dismissal is endless.
Despite the poor results, the KFA expressed its support for Hong Myung-bo, "It is indeed too short to give him only one year, and the association has a responsibility."
But on July 10, 2014, Hong Mingfu suddenly held a conference to announce his resignation.
Hong Mingfu bowed and apologized
At the conference, Hong Mingfu's expression stiffened as he bowed deeply to the media in attendance before saying:
"I spent a total of 24 years with the national team as a player and coach, the nation gave me a lot of encouragement and occasionally harsh criticism, and today I leave this position, but I will continue to work hard."
Hong kept apologizing for his performance in the World Cup.
"I feel suffocated and hurt, the nation has given us a lot of expectations, but I have only brought disappointment, I am really sorry. 1 year has gone through a lot, failures and mistakes have been made and misunderstood, I am not mature enough, I am really sorry, I am sorry for everyone."
South Korean media analyzed the reason why Hong Myung-bo resigned, in addition to the poor results in the World Cup, there are two key factors.
For one, during the World Cup preparations, Hong Myung-bo actually returned to the south of the city to busy himself with buying land for his family.
Second, after being eliminated from the World Cup group, Hong Myung-bo actually took the whole team to drink flower wine.
Hong Mingfu also responded to both:
For one, the land purchase was done on private time, and I sure as hell wasn't out doing it during training, I wouldn't do anything that sleazy.
Secondly, the team dinner is to comfort the players who are immersed in the loss, for the young players, the loss suffered a lot of shock and pressure, but this practice is really not well thought out.
After that, Hong Mingfu took more than 1 year off.
get out of class
Hong Mingfu arrived in Hangzhou, China, at the end of 2015 to take over the coaching reins at Greentown.
Song values the Koreans' ability to develop young players, while Hong said he likes the challenge.
"Greentown has a lot of young players, I have strong experience in bringing young players, both sides are attracted to each other, and the Chinese channel is big, and it's a big challenge to go to a completely different environment, and I like challenges."
Hong Mingfu has high expectations for Greentown, he believes that the team's young players have great potential, but many of them have been sitting on the bench before and need time to come slowly, and he has set a goal for the team - relegation.
But Greentown was still relegated, and in the 2016 Super League season, they won just eight games.
At the wrap-up meeting at the end of the season, Hong Mingfu encouraged everyone:
"Relegation is not the end of the world, everyone needs to keep their heads up for the work and life behind them. I will reflect on it and I hope everyone else thinks about it too and turns relegation into a valuable asset for the team's future."
Despite relegation, Hong Mingfu did not step down, Song Weiping wanted to keep him to continue to develop young players, Hong Mingfu really has a way of coaching young players, the players respect and recognize him very much.
More importantly, of course, there is the All-Conference in 2017.
In the off-season, Greentown sold Zhao Yuhao, Feng Gang and Cao Haiqing three starters, and 10 U20 players promoted to the first team, to continue the "youth storm".
After 10 rounds, Greentown 4 wins, 2 draws, 4 losses, only 14 points, ranked 10th, suffered two consecutive defeats, May 27, Greentown club officials announced Hong Mingfu dismissed.
Hong Myung-bo also posted his parting letter on a Korean website on the same day:
I decided to leave Hangzhou Greentown.
First of all, I'd like to say thank you to the fans who have been supporting me all this time and the players who have been working so hard, it's been such a tough time for me.
During the period between the end of winter training in January and February this year, the club had asked me to unconditionally start 10 players under the age of 20 for the new season. They claimed that it was more important to develop young players than the results of the team.
Hangzhou Greentown's approach to developing young players is good, but I'd say you're going about it the wrong way.
In order to fulfill the club's guidelines, you are asking to enter 4 or 5 young players in every game, regardless of whether they are worthy of starting, which affects the team's results and is quite detrimental to their growth.
Many of the players in the team are in good shape, but they can't play because of your demands. And those young players and have to be forced to enter the field, for a coach, it is hard to convince myself.
The end result was that all the rivalries exploded against Qingdao.
The saddest thing is that I can't go out and do anything about it as a head coach.
After three consecutive wins and two consecutive losses, the club ended up releasing me from my contract early, which honestly wasn't a reason I was completely convinced and accepted.
Of course, it didn't make much sense for either side to continue, and I couldn't continue to fulfill my managerial duties if the underlying issues weren't resolved. In the end, after a final exchange with the club, I made a difficult decision - to leave.
I would like to thank again the fans who have been caring about Greentown and the players who have been working hard. I will leave you like this and wish you all a bright future.
1.5 years of experience in the Chinese Super League, Hong Mingfu is very emotional:
There are big differences between the Chinese Super League and the rest of international soccer, and if you're not an authority, you'll only see the surface.
champions
In November, shortly after his dismissal, Hong became a full-time director of the KFA, the No. 2 person behind the president of the federation and the concrete executive of the planning and development of Korean soccer.
He did this for three years.
During his tenure, Hong Myung-bo has organized soccer culture exchange activities between China and South Korea, and has given pertinent advice on the development of youth soccer in the Chinese Super League.
On December 24, 2020, less than a week after Ulsan won that year's AFC Championship, the club announced Hong Myung-bo as the new manager.
As soon as he took office, Hong Mingfu said:
"We have a very clear goal of winning the 2021 league title."
Ulsan led Jeonbuk in the regular season phase of the K-League for the past two years, before dropping the ball for the second year in a row after entering the title contenders' bracket with two consecutive runner-up finishes.
In the 2021 K-League regular season, Ulsan and Jeonbuk entered the Championship Division race with 64 points, and then Ulsan dropped the ball again.
In the direct confrontation with Jeonbuk, Ulsan was whistled out of the game in injury time, and ultimately finished 2nd with a 2-point deficit, completing a "third consecutive second-place finish".
The result was so embarrassing for Ulsan that the word "failure" became a taboo word in the team.
But that didn't knock out Hong Myung Bo and Ulsan.
Ulsan recruits and makes a comeback.
Hong Myung-bo personally called in his favorite player Kim Young-gwon, and brought in Yim Won Sang from Gwangju FC, Jun Amano on loan from Yokohama Marinos, Leonardo from Shandong Taishan, and Hungarian international Martin Adam in the summer window.
Ulsan was strong all the way through the season, leading the way to the end of the regular season and entering the title race with a five-point advantage, and Ulsan didn't drop the ball again in a direct matchup with Jeonbuk in the title race.
October 8, "modern derby", Jeonbuk advanced 1 goal, injury time Adam scored 2 goals, Ulsan reversed the shutout, Hong Myung-bo and the players into a frenzy, the scene of the game Ulsan fans tears of excitement.
On the 16th, Ulsan reversed Gangwon FC 2-1 on the road to win the title 1 round early, winning the K-League title again after 17 years.
Ulsan celebrates after winning the title
Ulsan's reinforcements during the transfer period have been huge.
Yan Won scored 12 goals in the last league, the 1st in the team; Leonardo scored 11 goals, Ulsan didn't lose any of the competitions where he scored; Jun Amano scored 9 goals; Adam scored 9 goals; Kim Young Kwon became the center of the team's backline, Ulsan just conceded 31 goals in 37 competitions, the 1st less in the K-League.
"This time last year, we were hurting and frustrated, but we didn't give up hope, and I'm confident that someday we'll get it done (win the title)."
"Even if I don't finish this year, I'm not going to give up, giving up is the easiest thing to do, and I'm sure I'll be able to do it next year."
In 1992, Hong won the K-League with Pohang Steelers, and in 2002, Hong created the legend of the quarterfinals with South Korea in the Korea-Japan International Cup;
As a coach at the 2012 London Olympics, Hong won the bronze medal with the South Korean national Olympics; in the 2022 K-League, Hong led Ulsan to the title after 17 years.
Hong Mingfu experienced another "10-year cycle".
Hong Mingfu celebrates
Hong Mingfu, 53, laughed and said:
"I'd like to change the cycle to 1 year, 10 years (at a time), it's too long."
