Partners: GoodsFromJapan | JapanVisitor | PortugalVisitor

Asian World Cup Qualifiers - South Korea

John Duerden previews the second round of matches

The 2002 World Cup is still fresh in the minds of South Korean football fans, naturally so as the competition saw the team, who had failed to win a game in its previous five appearances, brush aside Portugal, Italy and Spain to reach the semi-finals.

However, it is not quite as clear cut as all that as doubts linger in footballing, especially European, circles on the impressiveness of Korea's achievements in that golden summer. Among some countries' football fans, the Koreans are regarded, at best, as lucky, at worst, having being involved in some vast FIFA conspiracy.

Most rational observers would settle on the former but still should have been impressed by the work-rate, fitness, stamina, organization and skill that Guus Hiddink's players displayed two and a half years ago. Still, in Germany 2006, it needs a good performance from the 2002 semi-finalists to convince the global public that Korea really is a player on the world stage.

However, the team has to qualify first. Appearing in the 2006 World Cup is not yet a done deal, as the second stage of Asian qualifying has to be successfully negotiated. Not appearing in what would be its sixth consecutive tournament is unthinkable in Korea, so much so that no-one in the media seems to acknowledge that such a situation could arise.

Such a thing shouldn't come to pass as the team is more than capable of finishing in the top two places in its group that would guarantee automatic qualification. Finishing third out of the four would mean a play-off with the third placed team from Group one, with the winner facing Concafaf's fourth best team.

Jo Bonfrere will be mindful of a series of indifferent performances in the first stage of qualifying. A weak group, containing Lebanon, Vietnam and the Maldives was won weakly with only nine goals coming in the four wins and two draws.

The Dutchman was only in charge for the last three games of the group, as his predecessor Humberto Coelho had left his post after a goalless draw in the Maldives, but Bonfrere will be aware that a string of similar performances will not end in a first place finish in the second stage with the opposition being Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait.

Saudi Arabia are, along with the two Koreas, the only Asian team to have made it past the first stage in the World Cup, eventually being sent home by the Netherlands in the second round in 1994. The team has been through fourteen coaches since then, a sure sign that all's not well, but unlike Korea, the country's fans will want the players to prove that 2002 was an aberration. That competition saw three defeats in three games for the Middle-Easterners, including a nightmare 8-0 thrashing by Germany.

First-round exits in 2004's Asian and Gulf Cups shows the fragility of the Saudi side and despite Korea's goalscoring problems, it is difficult to see the West Asians finishing above the East Asians.

The Central Asians will have a major say in things as the region could see its first representative in the world's greatest sporting competition. The Uzbeks have improved dramatically over the past eighteen months and won't be the pushovers that they were during qualifying for the 1998 World Cup when the two teams last met, with Korea triumphing in both games, including an emphatic 5-1 victory in Tashkent. Saudi Arabia will be aware of Uzbekistan's capability as a Mirijdal Kasimov strike dumped them out of the Asian Cup. As well as their inspirational captain, the Central Asians can count on two talented strikers in Dinamo Kiev's Maxim Shatskikh and CSKA Moscow's Alexander Geynrikh.

The Kuwaitis are more familiar as the two teams met last July in the first round of the Asian Cup. Korea won that game 4-0 in what was probably their best performance of 2004. However, Bonfrere would do well to bear in mind the fate of his compatriot Arie Haan, the recently departed coach of China, who resigned in November after Kuwait had pipped his team to qualification for the second stage.

Bonfrere's search for the answer to Korea's goalscoring problem is ongoing. World Cup heroes, Ahn Jung-hwan and Seol Ki-hyeon, are not out and out goalscorers and while they are capable of creating their own chances, and others, they don't have the predatory instinct that any successful team needs.

Lee Dong-gook, not for the first time, seemed to offer himself as the answer as he enjoyed a purple streak of seven goals in six games in the second half of last year. Doubts remain about Pohang Steelers' hitman as he doesn't seem to have the required class to succeed at the highest level but at least he has earned himself the chance to try.

The team's World Cup success was based on a strong defence, expertly marshalled by Hong Myong-bo and his lieutenants Kim Tae-young and Choi Jin-cheul. These three veterans can no longer be seen on the international stage and Bonfrere's task is to find a settled defence that can qualify for Germany. As yet, Park Jae-hong and Kim Jin-kyu don't yet have the air of authority that their predecessors had.

That air seems to be slipping away from Lee Woon-jae. The goalkeeper made his name with a series of excellent performances in the World Cup, leading Ray Clemence, the former Liverpool goalkeeping legend, to label him 'the star of the tournament.' It is too early to say that Lee's place is under threat from Chunnam's Kim Young-kwang but Suwon's shotstopper 'enjoyed' some nervy performances in 2004. His defence will need the 31-year-old to be at his best in 2005, or whatever happens, Lee won't be playing in Germany in 2006.

Naturally, it would be devastating for Korean football if the national team didn't make it to Germany but even if the players don't perform to their best, their experience and work-rate should see them through.

John Duerden

"The Onside In-Site" Copyright © From 2000. All rights reserved. Soccerphile Ltd.