South Korea are considered to be the premier team in Asia. This will be their eighth World Cup and despite not having many household names, they made the footballing world sit up and take notice with their 2002 World Cup performance where they made the semi final. Despite competing in so many World Cups however, their record in this tournament is dismal. They didn’t win a match until the 2002 finals.
Their 1954 World Cup adventure was a humiliating experience. They lost their two matches 9-0 and 7-0. In the four competitions from 1986 to 1998, South Korea played twelve games, losing eight and winning none, conceding 27 goals in the process. They co-hosted the 2002 edition with Japan and it was a memorable tournament for their fans. Under the legendary Guus Hiddink, they defeated Portugal in the group stages en-route to qualifying for the last 16. Here, they were expected to lose to Italy but sensationally upset the form book as they dumped the world class side out and followed that up with another amazing win over Spain in the quarter finals. It was left to Germany to finally end their dreams in the semi finals. The European sides complained bitterly that the South Koreans benefited from ‘hometown officiating’ but these claims were angrily refuted by the co-hosts. In the 2006 tournament, they beat Togo and drew with France only to lose to Switzerland and get eliminated from the group stages.
They were automatically allowed into the third round of the Asian qualifying tournament as one of the five top seeds and they comfortably qualified for the final stage alongside arch-rivals North Korea. They were to meet again with the South winning an encounter in Seoul, the only game between the sides in four encounters that didn’t end in a draw. They topped their final group ahead of North Korea and had the distinction of being the only undefeated team in the Asian qualification stages.
Despite having had a 27 match unbeaten run recently that was only ended by Serbia in November 2009, South Korea will have their work cut out for them in Group B where they will battle Argentina, Greece and Nigeria. If they can win their opening fixture against Greece, then they will be very confident of making the knockout stages for only the second time. Their most recognisable players are Ji-Sung Park of Manchester United and Chung-Yong Lee who plays for Bolton Wanderers. The confidence of having had a long unbeaten run coupled with the experience in the squad may be enough to get them through but it will be a tough challenge.