Korea

8 entrants predicted Korea to win the World Cup

90 entrants are supporting Korea

Top 10 Korea supporters

Pos	Name	Po
1	Jinheon Ha seoul, Korea	102
2	Tom  Tempe	95
3	Basil Fawlty Torquay England	91
4	Peter Grassman Evanston	88
5	SH Kim  Arizona	85
5	samuel korea	85
7	GTZ1992 Montreal	83
7	OhSong Canada	83
9	Matt Arnold  Oooooh! Korea!	82
10	korea united home	81

Group matches

Team profile

• Coach: Dick Advocaat (October 2005 ~ )
• World Cup appearances: 7
• First World Cup: 1954
• Best performance at World Cup: Fourth place, 2002

The South Korea national football team has a strong claim to being Asia's most successful national team since they made their debut at the 1948 Summer Olympics. It has participated in more World Cup finals than any other Asian team, even reaching the semi-finals in 2002.

Korea has a long football-playing history. In ancient times, there was a Korean ball game called chuk-gu very similar in form to contemporary football. However, Koreans first saw the present version of football in 1882 when British crew members played a game while their vessel was visiting the port of Incheon. In 1921, the first All Korea Football Tournament was held, and in 1928, The Korea Football Association was organized, which created a foundation to disseminate and develop the sport. During Japan's colonial rule, football contributed to alleviating the frustrations of the subjugated Koreans and fostering the hope of liberation. The Korea Football Association was reinstated in 1948, following the establishment of the Republic of Korea. The KFA became a member of FIFA, the international football governing body that same year. It later joined the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) in 1954. Since the 1960s, South Korea has emerged as the major football power in Asia, winning several prestigious Asian football championships, such as the first two Asian Cup tournaments. The South Korea national team has also played in five consecutive World Cup finals from 1986, for a total of six World Cups (more than any other Asian country). The Korean professional football league was launched in South Korea in 1983 as the first ever professional football league in Asia. This not only pleased domestic fans, but it has also upgraded the level of the nation's football. The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly with Japan, was a sign of the rapid progress made in South Korean football. Led by Dutch coach Guus Hiddink and assistant coach Andrew Um, South Korea astonished the world by defeating traditional powerhouses Italy and Spain, and advancing to the semi-finals, a first for Asian football. The enthusiasm of the red-clad supporters, the "red devils", also made a big impression on viewers world-wide. On June 8, 2005, the South Korean team qualified for their seventh World Cup by beating Kuwait 4-0 in Kuwait City.

World Cup record

• 1930 to 1950 - Did not enter
• 1954 - Round 1
• 1958 - Did not enter
• 1962 - Did not qualify
• 1966 - Withdrew
• 1970 to 1982 - Did not qualify
• 1986 - Round 1
• 1990 - Round 1
• 1994 - Round 1
• 1998 - Round 1
• 2002 - Fourth place
• 2006 - Qualified - South Korea is in Group G along with France, Switzerland, and Togo.

Encyclopedia information from Wikipedia article 'Korea national football team'. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.