south korea

Manager: Huh Jung-Moo
Captain: Park Ji-Sung
FIFA Ranking: 48
World Cup appearances: 1954, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006
Best World Cup: Fourth Place – 2002

South Korea Team Profile:

Despite managing to qualify for the World Cup seven times, they’ve only once made any real inroads at the prestigious tournament. However, in 2002 South Korea were the surprise package of the whole tournament and went on to defy the odds on several occasions when beating Portugal, Spain via a penalty shoot-out and then Italy in the quart-finals to book their first ever Semi-Final appearance in a world cup. They unfortunately went on to lose both the Semi-Final and the third place play-off but the Koreans certainly left their mark on that tournament and they will be aiming to reach similar heights in South Africa.

Manager

Huh Jung-Moo was a cult hero in his time as a player for South Korea. During 1974-1986 Jung-Moo notched up no less then 84 appearances in a South Korean shirt, scoring 25 goals in the process. However, Jung-Moo is widely remembered for his goal against Japan back in 1985 when Jung-Moo scored the winner to send South Korea to the Mexican World Cup and start a run of six consecutive world cup appearances. A run which he has already extended as manager with qualification already wrapped up for South Africa.

South Korea Key Players

Park Ji-Sung

The United stalwart will look to lead by example in South Africa for the South Koreans and his experience in playing in arguably the worlds most exciting league has seen him take the captains armband for his country. Despite being often one of the smallest players on the park for both club and country, he has made a name for himself by being a gritty and determined individual and is now one of the first names on the team sheet at Manchester United. Park finished the qualifying campaign as South Korea’s top goalscorer which is a major concern when you consider that he does most of his work in the middle of the park. The forwards are obviously not adding their contribution.

South Korea Qualification for the World Cup

Sector: Asia
Group: 2
Position: 2nd
Win-Draw-Lose: 3-3-2
Goals Scored: 7
Goals Conceded: 5

Qualifying Statistics:

- South Korea were one of just two sides in the Asian sector to finish qualifying with an unbeaten record of eight games without a single defeat.
- Their tally of twelve goals in eight games was the joint highest along with Australia who notched up the same amount of goals.
- Park Ji-Sung finished qualifying as South Korea’s top goalscorer with five goals.
- South Korea are the most successful country in Asia in regards to qualifying for the world cup. They’ve qualified for the last six world cup’s and have now made it seven with qualification for the 2010 World Cup already sewn up.

World Cup Potential: 2/5

Despite the heroics of 2002 which seen South Korea reach the third place play-off, we can’t see this crop of South Koreans going any further then the group stage. They would need a very easy group in order to progress as they simply lack enough quality players. Park Ji-Sung will do his obvious best to carry the Koreans as far as he can but that won’t be enough. A tricky opponent nevertheless but teams won’t fear South Korea this time around.

South Korea World Cup Betting Odds:

South Korea to win the World Cup: 250/1 Sportingbet

Before the World Cup the odds on South Korea were 250/1 

Official World Cup squad of South Korea

Goalkeepers

Woon-Jae Lee (Suwon)

Young-Kwang Kim (Ulsan)

Sung-Ryong Jung (Seongnam)

Defenders

Du-Ri Cha (SC Freiburg)

Hyung-Il Kim (Pohang)

Jung-Soo Lee (Kashima)

Young-Pyo Lee (Al Hilal)

Min-Soo Kang (Suwon)

Beom-Seok Oh (Ulsan)

Yong-Hyung Cho (Jeju)

Dong-Jin Kim (Ulsan)

Midfielders

Nam-Il Kim (Tom Tomsk)

Sung-Yong Ki (Celtic)

Jung-Woo Kim (Gwangju)

Ji-Sung Park (Manchester United)

Chung-Yong Lee (Bolton Wanderers)

Jae-Sung Kim (Pohang)

Bo-Kyung Kim (Oita Trinita)

Strikers

Seung-Yueng Lee (Seoul)

Jung-Hwan Ahn (Dalian Shide)

Chu-Young Park (AS Monaco)

Dong-Huk Lee (Jeonbuk)

Ki-Hun Yeom (Suwon)

last update: 18 June 2010

World Cup 2010 South Korea Fixtures – Group B

26/06 – 15.00 – Round of the last 16: South Korea – Uruguay: 1-2

World Cup Group B - Table

World Cup Fixtures and Results

World Cup Group of South Korea

Asia

Qualified Teams

Group 1: Australia, Japan

Group 2: South Korea, North Korea

Qualification Play-off

05/09/2009 – Bahrain V Saudi Arabia
09/09/2009 – Saudi Arabia V Bahrain

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will compete in a two-legged play-off, with the winner advancing to face New Zealand for a place at South Africa 2010.

Saudi Arabia will be the bookies favourite in this two-legged play-off for several reasons. They have an obvious World Cup pedigree after qualifying for the previous four World Cup’s. They also notched up more points in what was a tougher group. Bahrain also failed to beat Japan and Australia in Group 1 who were the only decent sides in that group. However, Saudi Arabia’s results were hardly impressive either with draws being their more common final result.

This should be a close affair over two legs but if one side can manage to secure a good result away from home, they would become to obvious favourite to progress further and play New Zealand in a World Cup qualification showdown.

Group 1

Australia cruised to qualification in group 1 and remained unbeaten throughout. They finished with 20 points from a maximum of 24 which is an outstanding feat and one that should leave the players full of confidence as they prepare to do battle at South Africa next year. Qatar and Japan were the only sides to have taken points away from the Australians with both games being away from Australian soil. The ‘Aussies’ won all four of their home fixtures and sealed qualification with several games to spare.

Japan nailed down a second place finish and can now look ahead to next year in Africa. They finished five points ahead of third place Bahrain, who will now have to play a play-off match with Saudi Arabia for the one remaining qualification spot. Bahrain had to hold off the competition of Qatar and Uzbekistan for that play-off spot but did so with ease in the end, finishing four points above Qatar who ended the campaign in fourth, one place shy of the play-off’s.

Group 2

The second group was a lot closer to call with no side really dominating the group. Despite a faltering end to the campaign, South Korea did finish the group as top dog with 16 points. They were four points clear of rivals North Korea who scraped into the final automatic qualification spot via goal difference.

Every side took points off one another at one stage or another and this showed in the final point tallies. Both Saudi Arabia and Iran narrowly missed out on that final automatic spot with Saudi Arabia losing out on virtue of goal difference and Iran were a point short of both. However, the big difference is that Saudi Arabia did just enough to book a play-off showdown with Bahrain. Iran will now go home empty handed although at least they faired a lot better then the United Arab Emirates who finished the group in fifth with just the solitary point to their name.