Koreas Looking Good

That’s the way football goes. From July to February 6, South Korea went 550 minutes of play without scoring. In the past two weeks, the team has found the net seven times.

Kwak Tae-hwi was responsible for the first and the last of those goals. The baby-faced defender headed home the first goal against Turkmenistan in Seoul two weeks ago and then, on Sunday afternoon, he scored in the last-minute to give the Taeguk Warriors a dramatic 3-2 win against China in Chongqing.

That victory came in the first match of the East Asian championships being held in the Chinese city. It was an exciting game. Park Chu-young hadn’t scored for the national team since March 1 2006 when Angola came to a snowy Seoul stadium. On a misty Chongqing day, Park headed home the opening goal at the end of the first half and then was on target in the second half with a lovely free-kick curled home from 25 metres.

Sandwiched In between the two strikes had come two Chinese goals, the first an absolute scorcher from Zhou Haibin, and the game was heading for a 2-2 draw on a misty afternoon. That was until Kwak fired home a fine half-volley to extend China’s winless streak against South Korea to 27 games and, as the Korean media gleefully pointed out, it also continues China’s “Koreaphobia".

There are still two games to play in this four-nation biennial tournament. Next up for Huh Jung-moo’s men is a Wednesday night clash with North Korea at the same venue.

Games against the northern neighbors are always special affairs but they are becoming more common. The teams have met only three times in the past 14 years but that number will double in 2008. As well as the game this week, there is the small matter of two qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup that will take place over the next few months.

Those two games make Wednesday’s clash a strange one. South Korea is without any European-based stars for this tournament. The roster is full of inexperienced K-Leaguers. Coach Huh can select a side safe in the knowledge that he will not be giving too much away to his opposite number Kim Jong-hun.

In contrast, Kim’s squad is at almost full-strength and he may be wary of showing too much of his hand ahead of the meeting in Pyongyang on March 26. Two of his team however, are already well-known to coach Huh.

Midfielder An Yong-hak was born in Japan but is a well-established North Korean international. He joined Busan I’Park in 2006 and after a slow start on the south coast; he has become one of the league’s most consistent performers. After 2002 and 2006 World Cup star and South Korean captain Kim Nam-il left Suwon Samsung Bluewings at the end of last season to join Japanese club Vissel Kobe, Suwon coach Cha Bum-keun picked up An as the replacement. The two should face each other on the pitch and An is looking forward to it.

“Kim Nam-il is the best midfielder in South Korea,” An told reporters after the Japan draw. “I want to play a good game against him.

“We watched the first half of South Korea on television and just a little of the second half,” An added. “The fact that they got the winner in stoppage time shows their mental strength.”

Jong Tae-se is another Japanese-born DPRK star. The striker plays for J-League club Kawasaki Frontale and scored an excellent goal in North Korea’s 1-1 draw with Japan on Sunday. Young and full of confidence, Jong also scored against Chunnam Dragons, the former club of southern coach Huh, in the 2007 Asian Champions League. He is hungry and dangerous.

“I am looking forward to playing against South Korea,” Jung said. “The team is similar to Japan in terms of ability. I should have scored more goals against Japan and I will try my best in the next game.”

It promises to be a tight match despite South Korea’s new-found scoring prowess and a draw would be no surprise as powder is kept dry for next month’s crucial clash.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile





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Just 51 Ten Minutes

Not too long ago, sexy Korean pop sensation Lee Hyo-ri famously sang “just one ten minutes”. The sultry songstress suggested that she could score with any man within that period of time. After Wednesday's defeat at the hands of Chile, South Korea’s footballers would have to sing "just 51 ten minutes" as the national team’s scoring drought stretches to almost biblical proportions.

Lee’s song was probably top of the charts when the Taeguk Warriors last hit the back of the net. While 90,000 Indonesians were present when Kim Jung-woo scored in Jakarta last July, there was only a select group of Korean witnesses. Soon, they could be sporting t-shirts that read “I saw Korea score.”



It won’t be t-shirt weather on Wednesday night when Turkmenistan comes to Seoul for the hosts’ first game of the 2010 World Cup qualification campaign. It certainly wasn’t last week either when Chile coolly won 1-0 at a three-quarters empty Seoul World Cup Stadium in Huh Jung-moo’s first game back as coach. A young and inexperienced team, freezing weather and Korea's Olympic handball play-off with Japan had contrived to keep the fans away.



The exhibition display, described as ‘toothless’ by most TV news stations, did little to warm those present . After 506 minutes of goalless football, there is little to be happy about as a Korean fan though Huh has promised a better performance on Wednesday.



He could be right as Park Ji-sung, one of the few Koreans more famous than the ubiquitous Lee Hyo-ri, returns home to take control of the situation. Park was absent from the Asian Cup through injury, as was Tottenham’s Lee Young-pyo and Seol Ki-hyeon of Fulham, but now all three are fully fit and ready to go. There should be a full house despite the fact that Seoul almost empties during festivities that celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Despite the lack of action in front of goal, the consolation is that Korea still managed to finish third at the Asian Cup and that the real action starts now. Failure to defeat a fairly physical, but rather limited, Turkmenistan team (ranked 128 in the world by FIFA, Korea are 41st) would put real pressure not only on the team but also the coach.



At this moment, few care if the next goal comes from a Christiano Ronaldo-style super shot or if it hits the backside of captain Kim Nam-il and rolls over the line. Three points are what is needed if the Year of the Mouse is to start on a positive note.

Also positive is the fact that the other two teams in the group are hardly Asia’s finest. It could have been much worse for Korea. Australia was drawn with China, Asian champions Iraq and Asian Games winners Qatar. Korea has, as well as the Turkmen, only North Korea and Jordan to worry about.

After Wednesday night, the next game in the group, from which the top two progress to the final round of qualification, sees South Korea make the short trip to Pyongyang in March. That will certainly be an interesting trip both in football, and other, terms. It will be a much more comfortable trip for the Taeguk Warriors if they have three points under their belt.



Whether that happens or not depends on Wednesday. Three years ago in the middle of the Lunar New Year holiday, Korea faced Kuwait in Seoul in another World Cup qualifier. Lee Young-pyo got the ball rolling that night, another sub-zero encounter, before a spectacular volley from Lee Dong-gook settled the encounter.

The latter Lee is still banned from the national team after late-night drinking sessions at the Asian Cup but even he may raise a glass back in England if Korea’s first steps on the road to South Africa in 2010 turn out to be firm and steady.

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile


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A New Start For Korea

As first squads go, it is an important one. New national team coach Huh Jung-moo has no room for error as he prepares to guide South Korea along the road to the 2010 World Cup – starting against Turkmenistan on Seoul on February 6.

That will be the first of what will hopefully be 14 World Cup qualifiers and, while the Turkmen shouldn’t be underestimated – the team is physically strong with a number of players plying their trade in the Russian and Ukrainian leagues – it is as comfortable an opener as Huh could have wished for after being appointed to the position in December.

There were a few surprises in the 26-strong squad that the former Chunnam Dragons coach named on a freezing Thursday morning in Seoul but there was never any chance of the three eligible English Premier Leaguers – Manchester United’s Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo of Tottenham and Fulham’s Seol Ki-hyeon - not being summoned.

The trio will not play in a fairly low-key friendly game against Chile on January 30 but they will be back in the Land of the Morning Calm fairly soon after. Huh is looking to build his team, and his likely 3-5-2 formation - a change from Pim Verbeek’s preferred 4-3-3 - around the lively Park.

“There will be a lot of new faces in the national team, and we believe that the experience and skills of the foreign-based players will offer a great help for the younger players,'' he said. ``The players in Europe have already proven their abilities.''

Lee Dong-guk is the fourth Premier League star but is still suffering from the effects of two late-night drinking sessions that took place during the Asian Cup in Jakarta last July -not even soju creates such a hangover. The Middlesbrough striker and his three booze buddies, Lee Woon-jae, Kim Sang-sik and Woo Sung-young have been banned from national team duty until the end of the year.

The Lion King has enough on his mind as he tries to save his Middlesbrough career that has yet to produce a league goal. Striking rival Cho Jae-jin is also in England, trying to engineer a move into the world’s most popular and most lucrative league.

Spare a thought for the muscular marksman whose moody modeling expressions may soon become a permanent feature. This was supposed to be his time. His three, very successful years, in Japan came to an end in December. A free agent and available on a free transfer, surely one of Korea’s top strikers wouldn’t be short of offers?

There was interest. Cho, 26, went to Newcastle United for a trial and was reportedly on the verge of being offered a deal just as coach Sam Allardyce was fired by the club‘s owner after a run of mediocre performances. His north-eastern hopes dashed, Cho headed to the south coast and Portsmouth just as that club’s boss, Harry Redknapp, was being courted by Newcastle to become their new coach.According to reports in Korea, Cho was left dangling as Redknapp never saw the player as he took a couple of days to think over Newcastle’s offer before. Cho came back to Korea but was then soon scuttling westwards again for a final throw of the dice at Premier League strugglers Fulham. Despite encouraging words from Roy Hodgson, that deal too, looks to have hit a brick wall.

Whatever happens, Cho and anybody else who doesn’t currently have a club, will not be selected by Huh. Midfielder Kim Jung-woo provides another example of that. Ahn Jung-hwan was also excluded but has since joined Busan IPark.

Huh decided to choose four strikers –two of which, Park Chu-young and Jung Jo-gook, barely managed to find the net for goal-shy FC Seoul last season and while Huh knows that such an affliction is hardly contained to the capital, he is sure that, with time, goals will be in plentiful supply.

“We can’t solve the goalscoring problems overnight, it has been a long-standing problem," he admitted. "For a short time, it will be hard to improve but as the players have promised to cooperate, we can overcome this problem. Through repeated training and set piece plays, we aim to improve our goalscoring abilities.”

We will soon see.

South Korea squad:

GK--Kim Byung-ji (FC Seoul) Jung Sung-ryong (Pohang) Yeom Dong-gyun ( Chunnam)

DF--Kwak Tae-hwi (Chunnam) Kwak Hee-ju (Suwon) Hwang Jae-won, Jo Sung-hwan ( both Pohang) Jo Yong-hyung (Seongnam) Kang Min-soo (Jeonbuk) Jo Won-hee (Suwon) Kim Chi-woo (Jeonnam) Lee Young-pyo (Tottenham, England) Park Won-jae (Pohang)

MF--Lee Jong-min (Ulsan) Kim Nam-il (Vissel Kobe) Kim Du-hyeon (Seongnam) Yeom Ki-hoon (Ulsan) Park Ji-sung (Manchester Utd, England) Lee Dong-sik (Jeju) Lee Kwan-woo (Suwon) Hwang Ji-soo (Pohang) Koo Ja-cheol (Jeju)

FW--Seol Ki-hyeon (Fulham, England) Jung Jo-guk (FC Seoul) Jo Jin-soo (Jeju ) Park Ju-young (FC Seoul)

Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile.com


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Korea Follow England's Bad Example

It is a situation that is familiar to all English fans. The FA starts looking for a high-profile foreign coach for the national team, gets its fingers very publicly burnt, looks to home for a safe choice and then appoints a man with success in cup competitions but a mediocre league record.

Steve McClaren’s England didn’t qualify for the 2008 European Championships but will Huh Jung-moo’s Korea make it to South Africa in 2010? For the sake of the Korean Football Association (KFA), it better.

It hasn’t been the best of weeks for the KFA. It started with the expectation that, by Friday, a high-profile foreign coach would be appointed. The first choice was former Liverpool, France and Lyon boss Gerard Houllier and the back-up was the English ex-Ireland manager Mick McCarthy. Instead, a man who took Chunnam Dragons to tenth place in the 2007 K-League is in the hotseat.

The story is a sorry one. For weeks, the authorities had remained tight-lipped about who was in line to take the job, admitting only that it would be one from overseas. Naturally, there were off-the-record confessions but nothing that couldn’t be denied if necessary. Last Wednesday however, two separate KFA officials, one the chief and FIFA Vice-President Chung Mong-joon, told reporters that the deal was almost done. Official spokesperson You Yong-cheol said that it was ’50-50’ between Houllier and McCarthy.

According to sources, the 50-50 referred to whether Houllier would say no. It was assumed that McCarthy was prepared to leave English championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers and head east.

The KFA’s comments were swiftly relayed westwards, made headlines and came as a shock to the English club which issued a statement that said a statement would be issued later. Whether or not McCarthy wanted the job, he was hardly likely to publicly say so when he knew Houllier had first refusal. After a day of meetings at Molineux, the former Irish boss emerged from talks armed with an improved contract and the old “thanks but no thanks,” speech. Shortly after, it was confirmed that Houllier had also said ‘non’.

It was not a good 24 hours for Korean football and it also contained news that Pim Verbeek, who resigned as coach of the Taeguk Warriors in July, had been appointed by Australia. It didn’t make anyone feel better.

Instead of taking stock of the sorry situation, the KFA immediately turned to Huh Jung-moo and he was officially unveiled on Friday afternoon. It all happened frighteningly quickly but perhaps after the stinging overseas rejections, it is understandable that swift solace was sought in the embrace of a familiar figure and old flame.

Huh has coached the national team before – taking over after the 1998 World Cup and stepping down in 2000. It was not a time that was seen as especially successful. On the back of a Korean striker who could actually score goals, Lee Dong-gook, the team finished in third at the 2000 Asian Cup– the same as 2007. Without this recall, the 52 year-old would have gone down in international history as the man before Hiddink.

As coach of K-League club Chunnam Dragons, it is only in the cups that the team has shone. League performances have been average at best. Last season the Gwangyang outfit finished in tenth, scoring just 24 goals in 26 games.

With that in mind, it is not surprising that, among fans at least, Huh’s appointment has been met with even less enthusiasm that Steve McClaren’s in England in 2006. The Englishman was known by the media as ‘second choice Steve’ during his reign as coach, though that nickname turned out to be the nicest he was to receive as England went crashing out of Euro qualification.

‘Third-choice Huh’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it but he has a second chance to show what he can do, starting against Turkmenistan on February 6. Fans will be hoping that the team performs better on the pitch than the football association does off it.

copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile

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