Marked as Asia's most frequent participants in the FIFA World Cup, Korea Republic is also the continent's most accomplished team at the worldwide event. Thus, there is no doubt that the Taeguk Warriors will be planning to impose their regional dominance onto the rest of the football world once again from the very first kickoff of South Africa 2010.
While Korea Republic may have qualified for their seventh straight world finals tournament, they did have to travel quite a rough road to get there. Even after a run of less-than-impressive performances during the third round, the South Koreans landed atop their group after two 0-0 draws neighboring Korea DPR. The North Koreans proved to a worthy foe once again in the final round, holding the Taeguk Warriors to a 1-1 standoff in Shanghai. However, Korea Republic rebounded nicely with consecutive victories over United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, before a playing to a 1-1 stalemate against Iran in Tehran. A 1-0 home victory in the Korean series followed, before accomplishing the final mission with a 2-0 victory on the road, once again over United Arab Emirates.
Captain and mid-fielder Park Ji-Sung has played key roles in both of the Warriors' two previous FIFA World Cup trips, while the multi-faceted talent from Manchester United has now become an indispensible member of his national team, given his ability to create space and provide chances for his Korea Republic teammates.
Working as a clinician on the front line, striker Park Chu-Young is widely relied upon as the one to cure any problems found at the mouth of the goal. After a subpar outing versus Switzerland at Germany 2006, the young sharpshooter is anxious to redeem himself when he makes his second national team appearance at the worldwide event in South Africa, at the age of 24.
With the December 2007 appointment of Huh Jung-Moo to head coach, it put to an end an era of Dutch influence under the likes of previous head coaches, Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat, and after a slow start in the Asian Zone qualifying, the former Korea Republic mid-fielder silenced the critics by leading his Taeguk Warriors team into the finals with two games to spare.
Having scored a goal against Italy at Mexico 1986, Huh Jung-Moo is no stranger to the finals stage, given he has also taken part in Italy 1990, as fitness trainer, and USA 1994, as assistant coach. Additionally, Huh has held the position of interim coach of the Korea Republic squad twice previously, while also having led the U-23 team at the Men's Olympic Football Tournament Sydney 2000.
