Korea Republic national football team profile

The Korea Republic national football team represents the Republic of Korea in international football competitions. The team, also known as South Korea, is recognized as Korea Republic by FIFA.South Korea has participated in seven World Cup final tournaments.The first and only Asian team to reach the semi-finals, doing so when it co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Japan.It has qualified for its eighth World Cup final tournament, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, having been the only unbeaten team during the AFC qualification tournament. It won the first two editions of the AFC Asian Cup.Since the 2000s, South Korea has emerged as a major football power in Asia, winning several prestigious Asian football championships, including the first two Asian Cup tournaments. The South Korean national team has also played in six consecutive World Cup finals from 1986, making a total of seven World Cup finals in all. It recently qualified for its eighth World Cup finals by qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.2002 FIFA World Cup, which it co-hosted with Japan, the South Korean team was unable to garner a single win at any of the tournaments. Despite spirited play and good effort, South Korea has lost or drawn all of its matches except for in the last two tournaments which were held in 2002 and 2006.The 2002 FIFA World Cup was hosted jointly with Japan. Led by Dutch coach Guus Hiddink and assistant coach Pim Verbeek, South Korea defeated Portugal as well as European powerhouses Italy and Spain. The relative skill shown by the Korea Republic national football team in the 2002 FIFA World Cup brought fame and drew the attention of many different countries worldwide, which further led to scouting from several European Premier Leagues.During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, South Korea achieved their first World Cup victory outside of Asia by beating Togo 2-1 in Frankfurt on June 13. Against France, the team managed a late equalizer from Park Ji-Sung to end up with a 1-1 tie and this put them tied with Switzerland on top of their group. However, they were knocked out of the tournament after a controversial 2-0 loss against Switzerland, while France advanced with a 2-0 win against Togo.In the final round of South Africa 2010 World Cup qualifying, South Korea won the Group B with 16 points and qualified for the tournament finals.
Provisional squad list:
GK JUNG Sung Ryong
GK KIM Young Kwang
GK LEE Woon Jae
AHN Jung Hwan
CHA Doo Ri
CHO Won Hee
CHO Yong Hyung
HWANG Jae Won
KANG Min Soo
KI Sung Yueng
KIM Bo Kyung
KIM Chi Woo
KIM Dong Jin
KIM Hyung Il
KIM Jae Sung
KIM Jung Woo
KIM Nam Il
KOO Ja Cheol
KWAK Tae Hwi
LEE Chung Yong
LEE Dong Gook
LEE Jung Soo
LEE Keun Ho
LEE Seung Yeoul
LEE Young Pyo
OH Beom Seok
PARK Chu Young
PARK Ji Sung
SHIN Hyung Min
YEOM Ki Hun

source by-wikipedia.org