Korea Republic national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Korea Republic
Badge = South_Korea_FA.gif
FIFA Trigramme = KOR
FIFA Rank = 51
FIFA max = 17
FIFA max date = December 1998
FIFA min = 56
FIFA min date = February 1996
Elo Rank = 44
Elo max = 15
Elo max date = Sep 1980, Jun 2002
Elo min = 59
Elo min date = August 1967
Nickname = Taegeuk Jeonsa (Taegeuk Warriors), Tigers of Asia, Reds
Association = Korea Football Association
Confederation = AFC (Asia)
Coach = flagicon|South Korea Huh Jung-Moo
Captain = Kim Nam-Il
Most caps = Hong Myung-Bo (135)
Top scorer = Cha Bum-kun (55)
pattern_la1=_whiteborder|pattern_b1=_kor08h|pattern_ra1=_whiteborder
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First game = Flagicon|South Korea South Korea 5 - 3 Mexico Flagicon|Mexico
(London, England; August 2, 1948)
Largest win = Flagicon|South Korea South Korea 16 - 0 Nepal Flagicon|Nepal
(Incheon, South Korea; September 29, 2003)
Largest loss = Flagicon|Sweden Sweden 12 - 0 South Korea Flagicon|South Korea
(London, England; August 5, 1948)
World cup apps = 7
World cup first = 1954
World cup best = Fourth place, 2002
Regional name = AFC Asian Cup
Regional cup apps = 11
Regional cup first = 1956
Regional cup best = Winners, 1956 and 1960
East Asian Cup apps = 3
East Asian Cup first = 2003
East Asian Cup best = Champions, 2003 and 2008
Confederations cup apps = 1
Confederations cup first = 2001
Confederations cup best = 1st round, 2001

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. It has often been considered Asia's most successful national team, since it made its debut at the 1948 Summer Olympics. South Korea has participated in seven World Cup final tournament, and became the first Asian nation to reach the semi-finals, doing so when it co-hosted the 2002 tournament. It currently holds the best FIFA World Cup record among Asian teams. [cite news
author=
last=
first=
url=http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/asia/standings/group=250439/analysis.html
title=Korean derby takes centre stage
publisher=Fifa.com
date=2008-01-20
accessdate=2008-02-07]

History

Since the 1950s, 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. In 1954 World Cup, they played 2 games with Hungary and Turkey. They lost to Hungary 0-9 and 0-7 to Turkey. It's been hypothesized that the players failed to adapt to the cool playing conditions.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly with Japan, was a sign of the great progress made in South Korean football. Led by Dutch coach Guus Hiddink and assistant coach Pim Verbeek, South Korea controversially defeated Italy and Spain to become the first Asian national team to reach the World Cup semi-finals. On June 8, 2005, South Korea qualified for their seventh World Cup by beating Kuwait 4-0 in Kuwait City.

The enthusiasm of the red-clad supporters, known as the "Red Devils", also made a huge impression on viewers worldwide. After the team success, football had an explosion of popularity in the country, where the game had traditionally been less popular than other games, such as baseball, formerly the most popular spectator sport in the country.

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 very controversial 2-0 loss against Switzerland, while France advanced with a 2-0 win against Togo.

Forthcoming matches

:"*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks." :"**Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil."

Asian Cup record

;Defenders

Korea in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Group B

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification - AFC Group B
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National Team performance against various opponents

vs. Europe

(fb|FRA, fb|ENG, fb|GER, fb|TUR fb|CRO)

vs. Africa

(fb|CIV, fb|SEN, fb|GHA, fb|EGY)

Notable Matches

Korea Republic World Cup captains

Notes

ee also

*Be the Reds!
*Red Devil
*List of Korea-related topics
*List of national football teams

External links

* [http://www.kfa.or.kr/ South Korean FA(KFA; Korean Football Association)] official site

Titles