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| June 13, 2006 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1427 |
Confident South Korea meet tiny Togo
FRANKFURT, June 12: In 2002, Dutch coach Guus Hiddink steered unfashionable South Korea to the World Cup semi-finals. Four years on, compatriot Dick Advocaat will show in Korea's Group G opener against Togo on Tuesday whether he is carving a similar work of art or a poor imitation.
Emboldened by a passionate wave of home support, Korea became the first Asian side to reach the last four after eliminating soccer superpowers like Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Only a highly organised and physically superior Germany side prevented them reaching the final.
While there are doubts over their ability to achieve similar heroics on foreign shores, Korea say they will not be satisfied with anything less than a place in the second round.
“We are going to show that what we did four years ago was no fluke,” said striker Seol Ki-hyeon.
“The pressure is more than it was four years ago. We hadn't won a single game in the World Cup before 2002 but then we reached the semi-finals.
“It won't be easy playing against Togo, Switzerland and France but we are ready to beat them. We are very confident.”
Togo have had more than their share of problems.
They were woeful in the 2006 African Nations Cup and things deteriorated when the team arrived in Germany, coach Otto Pfister walking out because he felt a pay row among the squad meant he could not do his job properly.
“When I started to be manager of Togo, I was promised bonuses for the players would be cleared. That is still not the case so I decided to quit immediately,” he said.
“I'm not managing a team at the World Cup, my life's dream has been destroyed.”
Despite the upheaval in the Togo camp, the Koreans will have to stifle the attacking threat of Emmanuel Adebayor who was top scorer in African qualifying for the World Cup.
“We know he is their best player by far,” said Korea's assistant coach Pim Verbeek, who was also Hiddink's right-hand man in 2002.
“But we have no plans to man-mark him. That's not our style.”
Teams:
SOUTH KOREA (4-3-3): 1-Lee Woon-jae; 22-Song Chong-gug, 4-Choi jin-cheul, 6-Kim Jin-kyu, 12-Lee Young-pyo; 7-Park Ji-sung, 5-Kim Nam-il, 13-Lee Eul-yong; 14-Lee Chun-soo, 9-Ahn Jung-Hwan, 11-Seol Ki-hyeon.
Coach: Dick Advocaat.
TOGO (4-4-2): 16-Kossi Agassa; 2-Dare Nibombe, 3-Jean-Paul Abalo Dosseh, 5-Massamasso Tchangai, 19-Ludovic Assemoassa; 8-Kuami Agboh, 9-Thomas Dossevi, 10-Cherif Toure-Maman, 15-Alaixys Romao; 4-Emmanuel Adebayor, 17-Mohamed Kader Coubadja.
Coach: Kodjovi Mawuena.
Referee: Graham Poll (England).—Reuters
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