Football World Cup 2018 / South Korea

Football World Cup 2018 : South Korea
Trainer	Shin Tae-yong
captain	Ki Sung-yong
Qualified as	Second Asia Group 1
World rankings before the tournament	57
Tournament result	Out after the preliminary round
Games won	1
Games tie	0
Games lost	2
Gates	3: 3

This article covers the South Korean national soccer team at the 2018 World Cup . South Korea has entered the finals for the tenth time, without a break since 1986, and is the Asian team with the most appearances. With a win in the last group game, South Korea threw the reigning world champion Germany out of the tournament, but could not benefit from it themselves and was eliminated after the preliminary round as seven times before.

qualification

The team qualified through the qualification of the Asian Football Association AFC .

Games

Son Heung-min, South Korean top scorer

South Korea only had to intervene in the second round and met Kuwait , Laos , Lebanon and Myanmar in the group stage . South Korea was able to win all eight of the resulting games and remained without conceding a goal and scored at least one goal in every game. A game against Kuwait by FIFA on the green table was rated as a 3-0 victory for South Korea after FIFA suspended Kuwait on April 6, 2016. As group winners, South Korea qualified with a 13 point lead for the third round, which again took place as a group stage. Here the South Koreans met Iran , Qatar , Syria , Uzbekistan and the People's Republic of China . This round did not go so well, South Korea only won four out of ten games, lost three games and drew three times. They did not score a goal five times. After a 2: 3 defeat in Qatar on the third last match day, coach Uli Stielike , who took over the team after the 2014 World Cup and led them to the final of the Asian Cup in 2015 , was released. Under his successor Shin Tae-yong , the last two games against the already qualified Iranians and Uzbekistan, one of the direct competitors for second place, went goalless. South Korea thus secured second place behind Iran and qualified for the World Cup finals.

A total of 46 players were used in the 17 games - no qualified team used more players. 19 of the players used were also in the squad for the 2015 Asian Cup . Seven players were only used by the new coach in the last two games, including the 38-year-old 103-time national player Lee Dong-gook , who had not played an international game since October 2014. No player was used in all games. Jang Hyun-soo made 16 appearances . Only in the first qualifying game and the last two games under the new coach was captain Ki Sung-yueng not used. A total of four goalkeepers were used: Kim Seung-gyu stood between the posts 10 times, Kwoun Sun-tae 5 times and Kim Jin-hyeon and the more experienced Jung Sung-ryong each .

The top scorer was Son Heung-min . He scored seven goals in twelve games, placing him 12th on the scorers list in the Asian qualification. Ki Sung-yueng and Koo Ja-cheol each contributed four goals . A total of 13 South Koreans hit the goal at least once and scored 33 goals. They also benefited from an own goal each from a Chinese and a Lebanese player. The table of the second round also includes the three goals awarded at the green table against Kuwait.

Second round

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for South Korea
06/16/2015	Bangkok ( THA )	Myanmar	-	South Korea	0: 2 (0: 1)	Jae-Sung Lee (35th), Heung-Min Son (68th)
09/03/2015	Hwaseong	South Korea	-	Laos	8: 0 (3: 0)	Chung-Yong Lee (9,), Heung-Min Son (11th, 74th, 90th), Chang-Hoon Kwon (30th, 77th), Hyun-Jun Suk (58th), Jae-Sung Lee ( 90. + 3)
09/08/2015	Sidon	Lebanon	-	South Korea	0: 3 (0: 2)	Hyun-Soo Jang (22nd / penalty), owned by Lebanon (25th), Chang-Hoon Kwon (60th)
08/10/2015	Kuwait City	Kuwait	-	South Korea	0: 1 (0: 1)	Ja-Cheol Koo (13th)
11/12/2015	Suwon	South Korea	-	Myanmar	4: 0 (2: 0)	Jae-Sung Lee (18th), Ja-Cheol Koo (30th), Hyun-Soo Jang (82nd), Tae-Hee Nam (86th)
11/17/2015	Vientiane	Laos	-	South Korea	0: 5 (0: 4)	Sung-Yong Ki (3rd / penalty, 33rd), Heung-Min Son (35th, 68th), Hyun-Jun Suk (44th)
March 24, 2016	Ansan	South Korea	-	Lebanon	1: 0 (0: 0)	Jeong-Hyeop Lee (90th + 3th )
Abge.		South Korea	-	Kuwait	3-0

Final table of the second round

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	South Korea	8th	8th	0	0	027: 000	+27	24
2.	Lebanon	8th	3	2	3	012: 600	+6	11
3.	Kuwait	8th	3	1	4th	012:100	+2	10
4th	Myanmar	8th	2	2	4th	009:210	−12	08th
5.	Laos	8th	1	1	6th	006:290	−23	04th

1. ↑ Myanmar has played all of its home games in Bangkok. Source = FIFA confirms Afghanistan, Myanmar choice of neutral venues for World Cup qualifiers ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , In: GreenfieldReporter.com of May 11, 2015. 
2. ↑ ^{a b} The games scheduled for March 24th and 29th 2016 were rated 3-0 for Laos and South Korea due to the suspension of Kuwait on April 6th, 2016 by FIFA. Source = Kuwait's matches against Laos and Korea Republic forfeited . FIFA.com, April 6, 2016.
3. ↑ Kuwait was suspended by FIFA on October 16, 2015 and was not allowed to participate in any international matches until December 2017. Sources = Suspension of the Kuwait Football Association as of 16 October 2015 . (PDF) Fifa.com, October 16, 2015, suspension of the Kuwaiti Football Association lifted . Fifa.com, December 6, 2017.

Third round

date	Venue	host		guest	Result	Goal scorers for South Korea
09/01/2016	Seoul	South Korea	-	China	3: 2 (1: 0)	Own goal China (21st), Chung-Yong Lee (63rd), Ja-Cheol Koo (66th)
09/06/2016	Paroi ( MAS )	Syria	-	South Korea	0-0
10/06/2016	Suwon	South Korea	-	Qatar	3: 2 (1: 2)	Sung-Yong Ki (11th), Dong-Won Ji (56th), Son Heung-min (58th)
10/11/2016	Tehran	Iran	-	South Korea	1: 0 (1: 0)
11/15/2016	Seoul	South Korea	-	Uzbekistan	2: 1 (0: 1)	Tae-Hee Nam (67th), Ja-Cheol Koo (86th)
03/23/2017	Changsha	China	-	South Korea	1: 0 (1: 0)
03/28/2017	Seoul	South Korea	-	Syria	1: 0 (1: 0)	Jeong-Ho Hong (4th)
06/13/2017	Doha	Qatar	-	South Korea	3: 2 (1: 0)	Sung-Yong Ki (62nd), Hee-Chan Hwang (70th)
08/31/2017	Seoul	South Korea	-	Iran	0-0
05.09.2017	Tashkent	Uzbekistan	-	South Korea	0-0

Third round final table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Iran	10	6th	4th	0	010: 200	+8	22nd
2.	South Korea	10	4th	3	3	011:100	+1	15th
3.	Syria	10	3	4th	3	009: 800	+1	13
4th	Uzbekistan	10	4th	1	5	006: 700	−1	13
5.	China	10	3	3	4th	008:100	−2	12
6th	Qatar	10	2	1	7th	008:150	−7	07th

Note: The third-placed team from Syria could not prevail in the playoffs of the group third against Australia.

preparation

Games

date	Result	opponent	venue	South Korean goal scorers
October 7, 2017	2: 4	Russia	Moscow	Kyung-Won Kwon (87th), Dong-Won Ji (90th + 3)
October 10, 2017	1: 3	Morocco	Biel / Bienne ( CHE )	Heung-Min Son (66th / penalty)
November 10, 2017	2: 1	Colombia	Suwon	Heung-Min Son (11th, 61st)
November 14, 2017	1: 1	Serbia	Ulsan	Ja-Cheol Koo (62nd / penalty)
December 9, 2017	2: 2	People's Republic of China	Tokyo ( JPN )	Shin-Wook Kim (12th), Jae-Sung Lee (19th)
December 12, 2017	1-0	North Korea	Tokyo ( JPN )	Own goal North Korea (64th)
December 16, 2017	4: 1	Japan	Tokyo	Kim Shin-wook (13th, 35th), Woo-Young Jung (23rd), Ki-Hun Yeom (69th)
January 27, 2018	1-0	Moldova	Aksu ( TUR )	Shin-Wook Kim (68th)
January 30, 2018	2: 2	Jamaica	Aksu ( TUR )	Shin-Wook Kim (55th, 63rd)
3rd February 2018	1-0	Latvia	Aksu ( TUR )	Shin-Wook Kim (33rd)
March 24, 2018	1: 2	Northern Ireland	Belfast	Chang-Joon Kwon (7th)
March 27, 2018	2: 3	Poland	Chorzów	Lee Chang-min (85th), Hee-chan Hwang (87th)
May 28, 2018	2-0	Honduras	Daegu	Son Heung-Min (60th), Seon-Min Moon (72nd)
June 1, 2018	1: 3	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Jeonju	Jae-Sung Lee (30.)
7th June 2018	0-0	Bolivia	Innsbruck ( AUT )
June 11, 2018	0: 2	Senegal	Grödig ( AUT )

Remarks:

• For the games in December at the East Asian Cup, 14 players were nominated who were also used in the qualifying games.
• Teams in italics are not qualified for the World Cup.

Quarter

The team's quarters will be the Hotel New Peterhof in Saint Petersburg , where the team can train in the Spartak Stadium in Lomonosov .

Squad

On May 14, 2018, the preliminary roster was named, which was then reduced to 23 players. Eight players were also in the squad for the last World Cup, two players were already there in 2010 when South Korea was eliminated in the round of 16. On June 2, the final roster was announced. Were canceled Kim Jin-su , Kwon Kyung-won , Kwon Chang-hoon , Lee Chung-yong and Lee Keun-ho .

Item	No.	player	Club before the start of the World Cup	International matches *	Länderspiel- gates *	birth date	debut	Last use						World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2018)	World Cup goals (before 2018)
goal	21st	Kim Jin-hyeon	Cerezo Osaka P	016	00	07/06/1987	2012	07.06.2018
	01	Kim Seung-gyu	Vissel Kobe	034	00	09/30/1990	2013	07.06.2018						2014	1	0
	23	Jo Hyeon-woo	Daegu FC	006th	00	09/25/1991	2017	06/11/2018	3
Defense	22nd	Go Yo-han	FC Seoul	019th	00	03/10/1988	2009	May 28, 2018	1
	14th	Hong Chul	Sangju Sangmu FC	015th	00	09/17/1990	2001	May 28, 2018	2
	20th	Jang Hyun-soo	FC Tokyo	052	03	09/28/1991	2013	06/11/2018	2
	03	Jeong Seung-hyeon	Sagan Tosu	006th	00	04/03/1994	2017	06/01/2018
	12	Kim Min-woo	Sangju Sangmu FC	021st	01	02/25/1990	2013	06/11/2018	2
	19th	Kim Young-gwon	Guangzhou Evergrande M *	053	02	02/27/1990	2010	06/11/2018	3	1	1			2014	2	0
	02	Lee Yong	Jeonbuk Hyundai M *	028	00	12/24/1986	2013	06/11/2018	3		1			2014	3	0
	04th	Oh Ban-suk	Jeju United	002	00	05/20/1988	2018	06/01/2018
	06th	Park Joo-ho	Ulsan Hyundai	037	00	01/16/1987	2010	07.06.2018	1					2014	0	0
	05	Yun Young-sun	Seongnam FC	006th	00	04/10/1988	2017	07.06.2018	1
midfield	08th	Ju Se-jong	Asan Mugunghwa FC	010	01	10/30/1990	2015	06/01/2018	2
	15th	Jung woo-young	Vissel Kobe	029	01	12/14/1989	2015	07.06.2018	3		2
	16	Ki Sung-yong	Swansea City # ↓	104	10	01/24/1989	2008	06/11/2018	2					2010, 2014	7th	0
	13	Koo Ja-cheol	FC Augsburg	068	19th	02/27/1989	2008	06/11/2018	2					2014	3	1
	17th	Lee Jae-sung	Jeonbuk Hyundai M *	035	06th	08/10/1992	2015	06/11/2018	3		1
	10	Lee Seung-woo	Hellas Verona ↓	004th	00	01/06/1998	2018	06/11/2018	2		1
	18th	Moon Seon-min	Incheon United	003	01	06/06/1992	2018	07.06.2018	2		1
Storm	11	Hwang Hee-chan	FC Red Bull Salzburg M.	014th	02	01/26/1996	2016	07.06.2018	3		1
	09	Kim Shin-wook	Jeonbuk Hyundai M *	049	11	04/14/1988	2010	06/11/2018	1		1
	07th	Son Heung-min	Tottenham Hotspur	069	21st	07/08/1992	2010	06/11/2018	3	2	1			2014	3	1
Coaching staff	Trainer	Shin Tae-yong		23	3	10/11/1970	2017
	Trainer assistant	Toni Grande				09/17/1947	2017
	Trainer assistant	Jeon Gyeong-jun				09/10/1973	2017
	Trainer assistant	Kim Nam-il		98	2	03/14/1977	2017							2002, 2006, 2010	11	0
	Trainer assistant	Cha Du-ri		76	4th	July 25, 1980								2002, 2010	7th	0
	Goalkeeping coach	Kim Hae-woon				December 25, 1973	2017
(*) only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given. (Source: Team Squad for International Friendly (vs Honduras & Bosnia and Herzegovina) 05/14/2018 , updated after the games against Honduras on May 28 , Bosnia & Herzehgowina on May 1 , Bolivia on 7 and Senegal on June 11, 2018 (Game behind closed doors, no substitutions for South Korea noted in the match report).
↑ Numbers according to the official squad list (PDF) ↑ M = The club was champion of its country in the 2017/18 season, M * = The club was champion of its country in the 2017 season (the current season is still running), ↓ = The club was relegated from the country's highest league, Italic = the club plays in the second highest league in its country, # = the club played in the highest English league. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j As a player

Finals

Group draw

Kazan Nizhny Novgorod Rostov on Don St. Petersburg

Venues and quarters (blue / italic) of the South Korean team

For the draw of the qualifying groups on December 1st, South Korea was assigned to Pot 4. The team met in Group F against world champions Germany , Mexico and Sweden .

Germany and South Korea had already been drawn to the same preliminary round group when it first participated in 1954, but because of the mode that only applies to this tournament, they did not meet. It was not until the 1994 World Cup that both were drawn back to the same preliminary group and South Korea lost 3-2 against the defending champions in their fourth appearance. In 2002 they met in the semi-finals and South Korea lost 1-0 with a goal from Michael Ballack . Then both met in December 2004 in a friendly game in Busan , which South Korea won 3-1. The South Koreans played their first international game against Mexico and won the Olympic Games 5: 3, but lost their next game against Sweden, now their third opponent in the preliminary round, 0:12 - one of the two highest wins for Sweden and the highest defeat for South Korea. In 1998, South Korea and Mexico met for the first time at a World Cup and South Korea lost 3-1 in the preliminary round. In 2001 the two faced each other in the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup preliminary round and South Korea beat the Mexicans, who also lost the other two preliminary round matches, 2-1. There was also a competitive game in the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2002 , in which South Korea took part as a guest, which South Korea won after a goalless 120 minutes on penalties . There were also a number of friendly matches and games in smaller tournaments. Overall, the record is negative with four wins, two draws and six defeats against Mexico. After the first encounter, there were only three friendlies against Sweden, two in Seoul and one in the USA, two of which ended in a draw and one was lost.

South Korea had not previously played in any of the three preliminary round venues.

Group stage / group F matches

→ Main article : Football World Cup 2018 / Group F

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Sweden	3	2	0	1	005: 200	+3	06th
2.	Mexico	3	2	0	1	003: 400	−1	06th
3.	South Korea	3	1	0	2	003: 300	± 0	03
4th	Germany	3	1	0	2	002: 400	−2	03

Mon., June 18, 2018, 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. CEST) in Nizhny Novgorod
Sweden	-	South Korea	1: 0 (0: 0)
Sat., June 23, 2018, 6:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. CEST) in Rostov-on-Don
South Korea	-	Mexico	1: 2 (0: 1)	90 + 3 ′ Son Heung-min
Wed., June 27, 2018, 5:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m. CEST) in Kazan
South Korea	-	Germany	2: 0 (0: 0)	90 + 2 ′ Kim Young-gwon , 90 + 6 ′ Son Heung-min

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Korea Republic separates from Stielike . fifa.com
2. ↑ Team Squad for EAFF E-1 Football Championship 2017 (November 21, 2017) ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia - Team Base Camps. (PDF) fifa.com
4. ^ South Korea: Augsburger Koo in the preliminary World Cup squad . dfb.de
5. ↑ Koo in South Korea's final World Cup line-up . weltfussball.de
6. ↑ Cho Hyeon-woo also written in other sources (e.g. South Korea vs. Germany 2 - 0 ).