Jürgen Klinsmann has accepted responsibility as coach for South Korea’s Asian Cup semifinal elimination at the hands of Jordan, but said he has no plans to resign.
The former Germany and United States coach said that he was angry after the Taeguk Warriors were beaten 2-0 by Jordan at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium on Tuesday evening, saying that they were deserved winners.
“A coach is always responsible for how a tournament goes for a team. Absolutely. Our goal was to get into the final and we didn’t get into the final,” he said.
“You have to accept it, you accept the result like this. It happens because Jordan today deserved that result.”
However Klinsmann, a divisive figure in Korea ever since he was appointed to lead a group widely considered to be a golden generation just under a year ago, batted away a question over whether he planned to resign.
“I’m not planning to do anything, I won’t resign,” he said.
“I’m planning to analyse this tournament, to go with the team back to Korea and then talk to the federation about what was good and what was not so good in that tournament.
“I think there was a lot of good stuff that we saw. There’s a team that is growing, a team that still has to develop towards the World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada over the next few years, with a very difficult qualifying campaign. So there’s a lot of work ahead of us.”
Second-half goals by Yazan Al-Naimat and Musa Al-Tamari lifted The Chivalrous Ones to a famous win in Al Rayyan, securing the Middle Eastern nation a berth in its first-ever Asian Cup final.