Perhaps Guus Hiddink will tune in when South Korea hosts Australia in a friendly at Hwaseong Stadium next month.
The peripatetic Dutchman is in charge of Russian Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala these days but he’s fondly remembered for leading both countries in successful World Cup campaigns in 2002 and 2006 respectively.
And if Hiddink was to cast his eye over the Taeguk Warriors today, he’d no doubt like what he saw.
After all, South Korea’s under-23 side finished third at the 2012 London Olympics, knocking out hosts Great Britain and downing arch-rivals Japan in the bronze medal playoff.
The bronze-medal win was more than just symbolic for the players; it also meant they were exempted from South Korea’s otherwise compulsory two-year military service.
That will have pleased national team coach Choi Kang-Hee, though he may be wary of experimenting against Australia in the wake of a couple of disappointing World Cup qualifying results.
When Lee Dong-Gook silenced a parochial crowd with a skidding low drive in Tashkent last September, South Korea appeared to be cruising towards Brazil at a rate of knots.
"The Lion King’s" goal had just handed the Taeguk Warriors a 2-1 lead over Uzbekistan on the back of convincing wins against Qatar and Lebanon respectively.
But Uzbek midfielder Sanzhar Tursunov promptly nodded home an equaliser which suddenly made life more difficult for coach Choi and his team.
Sure enough, South Korea went down 1-0 to 10-man Iran in their next qualifier despite dominating for long stretches in front of 99,885 fans at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran.
The result means Iran have now drawn level with South Korea on points and the two sides meet again on the final day of qualifying.
That’s unlikely to have much bearing on the team Choi sends out against Australia, though the burgeoning rivalry between the two nations means it’s a friendly both sides will be eager to win.
South Korea’s successful Olympics campaign means talented youngsters aren’t exactly in short supply and perhaps the most eye-catching of them all is Cardiff City midfielder Kim Bo-Kyung.
The former Cerezo Osaka star is being eased into life at the Championship club but the 23-year-old is highly-rated in Wales after developing into a key player in the J. League.
Kim will come up against compatriot Lee Chung-Yong in the Championship, while 21-year-old Sunderland striker Ji Dong-Won is another South Korean helping to bust the myth that Asian players aren’t strong enough to succeed in English football.
One player who knows that better than most is combative Swansea City midfielder Ki Sung-Yueng, who enjoyed a ferocious tussle with Socceroos talisman Tim Cahill at the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar.
Ki famously spent much of his youth career at John Paul College in Brisbane but clearly leaves any fondness for his former adopted homeland in the dressing room, with the 23-year-old one of South Korea’s most passionate players.
Like his former FC Seoul teammate Lee Chung-Yong and one-time Chunnam Dragons striker Ji Dong-Won, Ki spent his formative years in South Korea’s highly competitive K-League.
It’s arguably a step up in quality from the A-League, a point Socceroos regular and current Busan IPark midfielder Matty McKay can no doubt attest to.
McKay is one of several Australians currently plying their trade in The Land Of The Morning Calm and Socceroos coach Holger Osieck would be wise to pick his brains ahead of the showdown in Hwaseong.
And if Osieck is determined to give youth a chance, he will invariably hope his counterpart Choi does likewise.
Unlike the Socceroos, South Korea do not have to worry about qualifying for an East Asia Cup they will host next July.
But there’s regional pride at stake and after beating Australia 3-1 in a 2009 friendly in Seoul, the Taeguk Warriors are unlikely to roll out the welcome mat this time around.