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| Cha Du-ri Out, Kim Yong-dae In |
| Some surprises as Advocaat announces Korea's World Cup team |
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John Duerden (internews)  |
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Published 2006-05-12 11:55 (KST) |
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 |  | |  Korean coach Dick Advocaat with member's of 2006's World Cup squad | | | ©2006 OhmyNews | In a packed conference hall in Seoul on Thursday afternoon, South Korean coach Dick Advocaat announced his 23-man squad for the World Cup. The announcement may have ended the dreams of some players, but hopefully provides the foundation to back up his statement that "our first target is the second round."
The highest profile casualty is Cha Du-ri, one of the heroes of the 2002 World Cup, which is destined to be the competition that all other World Cups are judged by in Korea.
A place on the stand-by list of five will be scant consolation for the Eintracht Frankfurt star, who may reflect that a season spending most of the time warming the bench has cost him the chance to return to the German city when South Korea take on Togo in the opening game of Group G on June 13.
His place on the right has been taken by 2002 teammate Song Chong-guk, who showed enough in the latter stages of the just finished K-League that he is approaching full fitness again after a series of injury problems.
As pictures of the lucky players appeared on the large projection screen, the one that drew gasps of surprise from the multitude of media men and women was that of Kim Yong-dae. The goalkeeper will be one of the three putting gloves in suitcases when the team jets off to Europe on May 27.
The Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma shot-stopper has yet to play for Advocaat, leading most newspapers to predict that Kim Byung-ji would be the third man. But like Cha, the veteran goalkeeper will have to be content with a place on the reserve list, to be called upon only if something untoward happens to the other three.
It is the second time that Advocaat has performed such a ritual in his career after taking his native Netherlands team to the 1994 World Cup, and he was keen to stress that the choices were not made lightly. "We made the final decision after last night's (K-League) games," he said amid the flashes of an insatiable pack of photographers, "but I don't want anybody to think that it was an overnight process -- we thought long and hard about it.
"Our staff has traveled a lot -- with the team in the overseas tour and since then watching the players in Europe as well as here in Korea. The result is, I think, a balanced squad that can surprise the world." The team did just that in 2002, and it is Advocaat's job to make sure that the first round of the World Cup doesn't end with Korea coming home while two of France, Switzerland, and Togo progress. He is confident that such an event will not come to pass."It's hard to say, but quality-wise we are better than 2002, though we don't have home advantage and the fans. Our strength is that this team has a great team spirit, likes to win and attack. If we can balance that with a well-organized defense then we can reach the second round -- that's the target at the moment."  | | | | Song Chong-guk | | | ©2006 OhmyNews | Though he professed to be focusing on the first round only, the coach did allow himself a look at what may lie beyond."Then we will probably face Spain or Ukraine and then anything can happen - that's the same for every other team and that's what happened in 2002." The watchword of the conference was balance as the coaching staff try to create a unit that can solve its problems in front of goal while maintaining a solid and effective defensive barrier."It is important that we are well-organized in defense and attack. When the balance of the team is good, we can be very dangerous." There is still work to be done when the majority of the squad, minus one or two late arrivals due to club commitments, meet for the first time as the official World Cup party."There is one thing we have to improve -when we don't have the ball, we have to get it back quickly. When we have the ball, we must have the intention to score as we have the players to score against the tightest defenses." It has been a busy few months for everyone connected with the national team since the new coach arrived last October, and Korea still has four more warm-up games in which to fine-tune the starting eleven. The first two opponents are Senegal and Bosnia, who will visit Seoul on May 23 and 26 respectively, though Advocaat is wary of pushing the players, many of whom have completed arduous domestic seasons, too hard.
"The squad will gather on Sunday and meet the medical staff on Monday and we'll find the way to go forward physically," he said. "We have to find the right way to train and keep them fit. We don't want to make the mistake that many coaches made in 2002, that of working the players too hard before the competition. "
"Teams that were fresh in 2002 did well -- like Korea and America. Other teams arrived after long, hard seasons -- like France and Argentina, were very tired."
Fatigue will not be a problem for those players not involved, though the coach did have a message for them."They will be disappointed -- that's normal, they should be. They have to show us next time that they are better players, if they had done that before, they would be in the squad now. Some people will have other names, I understand that -- but we know what we are doing." The world will see in June.
| | 2006 Korean World Cup Team | | | |
GK
Lee Woon-jae (Suwon Samsung Bluewings)
Kim Yong-dae (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma)
Kim Young-kwang (Chunnam Dragons)
DF
Choi Jin-cheul (Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors)
Cho Won-hee (Suwon Samsung Bluewings)
Lee Young-pyo (Tottenham Hotspur, England)
Kim Dong-jin (FC Seoul)
Kim Sang-shik (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma)
Kim Yong-chul (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma)
Kim Jin-kyu (Jubilo Iwata, Japan)
Song Chong-guk (Suwon Samsung Bluewings)
MF
Baek Ji-hoon (FC Seoul)
Kim Nam-il ( Suwon Samsung Bluewings)
Park Ji-sung (Manchester United, England)
Kim Doo-heon (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma)
Lee Eul-yong (Trabszonspor, Turkey)
Lee Ho (Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i)
FW
Park Chu-young (FC Seoul)
Ahn Jung-hwan (MSV Duisberg, Germany)
Lee Chun-soo (Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i)
Seol Ki-hyeon (Wolverhampton Wanderers, England)
Chung Kyung-ho (Gwangju Sangmu)
Cho Jae-jin (Shimizu S-Pulse, Japan)
Stand-by
Kim Byung-ji (FC Seoul)
Yoo Kyoung-ryeol (Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i)
Jong Hak-yong (Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma)
Kim Jung-woo (Nagoya Grampus Eight, Japan)
Cha Du-ri (Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany)
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©2006 OhmyNews
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