South Korea improved on their showing from Germany four years ago and qualified for the knockout phase of the World Cup for the first time ever outside of their home turf. They produced a couple of good performances and looked a well organised team with one or two exceptional individuals but didn’t quite have the quality to progress further than the second round.
They started strongly, with their best result of the tournament, a 2-0 win over Greece. Lee Jung Soo gave them an early lead in only the 7th minute and Manchester United’s Park Ji Sung added a second shortly after the interval. It was a good time the catch the Greeks as they never got out of the starting blocks and Korea could and should have scored several more.
The stroll in the park against Greece did nothing to prepare the Koreans for their next opponents. Argentina had also won their opening game and were approaching top form meaning Huh Jung Moo’s team had a completely different task ahead of them. Containment was the order of the day and, although they were thoroughly outplayed, they did at least manage to keep the score down in the first half. Argentina could have run up a cricket score in the first 45 minutes but it is credit to Moo’s men that they went in only a goal behind thanks to Lee Chung Yong’s goal in added time.
The second half brought more of the same and South Korea were unlucky to come up against an imperious Lionel Messi pulling the strings for Tevez and Higuain. It was Messi’s free kick that had been deflected in off Park Chu Young for the opener and the little maestro went on to serve up a hat-trick for Higuain in what became a 4-1 demolition. Still, there was all to play for in their final group game.
A win against Nigeria would have guaranteed progress and a draw was always likely to be enough and in the event a draw was what Korea got although it was a close run thing. They went behind in the 12th minute and could have fallen further adrift before Lee Jung Soo’s equaliser seven minutes before half time. Park Chu Young put Korea ahead early in the second half when he struck home the first free kick goal of the tournament but they rode their luck for the rest of the game conceding a penalty for the equaliser and surviving a an open goal comically missed by Yakubu before their place in the second round was finally secured by the final whistle.
Their last sixteen encounter pitted them against Group A winners Uruguay and the occasion inspired another fine performance from the South Koreans but they ended up losing out by the odd goal in three. It was a closely contested match that could have gone either way right up until the last ten minutes when Uruguay’s Suarez produced a fine individual strike to win it. The same player had given the South Americans an early lead but Korea fought back through Lee Chung Yong’s header in the 68th minute and had chances for a winner of their own.
Second in their group and a narrow second round defeat was probably par for the course for this squad but they can be relatively happy with their performance and have every chance of building on it over the coming years ahead of their next assault on the World Cu
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