It seems to me that most Arsenal fans are wishing Park well whilst not expecting too much from him. This will probably suit him. There’s going to be much more pressure on, say, Mikel Arteta or Per Mertesacker, than there will be on Park to come in and perform from the off. (Adding hyperlinks not working, sorry. Here are the links that should be in this section: http://arseblog.com/2011/08/three-in-more-to-come/ http://gunnerblog.com/2011/09/01/transfer-frenzy-5-signings-in-2-days/ http://adamsummerton.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/dont-blame-park-chu-young/

The best way to measure what Park can bring to Arsenal is to first look at what their objectives are. First and foremost they need to finish in the top four in the league. The teams ahead of them have arguably strengthened, but Arsenal should be more concerned with the teams who finished last season just below them this time round in order to maintain their top four status. Tottenham don’t have anough, in my opinion, to oust the Gunners. In some people’s minds Liverpool are top four material, perhaps even title challengers. You’ll find none of that sort of talk here, though. I predict a 5th place finish for Liverpool, owing to the signings Arsenal have brought in.

So of those signings, what does Park himself bring? Experience, talent, commitment in abundance – we’re nott alking about the sort of player who would stand for implosion at the end of last season. He’s a tough guy mentally and has had problems and made mistakes in the past that he’s very clearly learned from. He’s the captain of his national side for a reason. Korean culture places a great emphasis on age and hierarchy. At 30, Park Ji-sung was the older brother of the team – the most experienced and succesful player not just of his generation, not just that the country had ever produced but of all players ever to come out of the largest and most populous continent on earth. Upon his retirement, the fact that this role was passed to Park Ju-young is very telling. Park Ju-young was not immature or inexperienced before he became captain, but I get the sense that he will now be demanding even more from himself now. He is already becoming the leader and inspiration for a very talented group of young Korean players (Lee Chung-yong, Ki Sung-yong, Son Heung-min, Koo Ja-Cheol, Nam Tae-hee, Ji Dong-won, Jung Sung-ryong, Lee Seung-ryeol etc etc). He has always tried to set an example with his performances and his behaviour, and now is clearly becoming more vocal and driven.

This should be looking good for Arsenal fans. That’s the sort of player they need, and the situation at Arsenal is in that respect similar to the current South Korean national setup. South Korea is a fairly small country with a fairly small population, and yet one that is mad about football. They have always produced good technical players with the right attitude, who work hard and play attractive, passing, attacking football. They are ambitious but have sometimes found it hard to match results to their ambition, competing against the comparative financial muscle of the Japanese domestic game and the vastly larger populations of their neighbouring countries. Despite that, however, the current group of South Korean elite in the roughly 18-23 years old age range is arguably the best ever. Unfortunately, the same could also be said of Japan. So much of this corresponds loosely to Arsenal’s current situation, and the fact that Park has been involved with this on a national level and has maintained high performances and become a leader bodes well.

Some have criticised his goalscoring record. Personally I wouldn’t say it’s worthy of criticism, but neither is it spectacular. His last season with Monaco was very good, despite the fact that the team as a whole was abismal, getting relegated. Park scored a third of Monaco’s goals last season, notching 12 in 33 league games for a relegated club. RVP scored a quarter of Arsenal’s league goals last season.

Undoubtedly RVP will be relied upon again to provide the main goalscoring threat this season, but Park provides an interesting addition. Let’s say they were to play in the same team. RVP would obviously be leading the line, giving Park a bit more freedom to use his pace and deceptive movement off the ball around the edge of the area, bringing in other players, moving the defence around and allowing van Persie to do his thing. It’s safe to assume that he’ll grab a few goals himself in the process. That would mean an essentially 4-4-2 formation (although perhaps more like a 4-4-1-1), most likely with Gervinho on the left of the midfield and Walcott on the right. Arteta is capable of providing exactly the sort of subtle, clever passes that Park thrives on from the middle of the pitch. I can’t see Wenger deploying this sort of formation if they were to come up against the likes of Barcelona again, though, meaning Park would probably drop to the bench.

He is also capable of playing anywhere across a front 3, of which the same can be said of Gervinho and arguably Walcott, so Wenger has options, including Chamack, who is a more traditional centre forward.

As to how he will fit into the squad, he’s a bright personality, positive, highly intelliegent in a traditional and footballing sense, very dedicated to his football and deeply religious. He’s also obviously spent a while in France, which makes him perfectly suited to this Arsenal squad considering its makeup and the background of the players – and manager.

All in all, a solid signing. Expect a couple of missed sitters, a decent haul of goals (but not enough to outdo RVP) and an overall good contribution to the team. And excellent value at that price, even if he does have to do military service after the Olympics.*

*Korean players are excused form military service if they medal at the London Olympics. Park is a fairly safe bet as an overage player, and Korea do have a good crop of players in th right age range at the moment.

This time round the coach, Huh Jung-moo, the players and the Korean people were all confident that second place in their group was possible, although all knew it would be tough. Argentina were undoubtedly firm favourites to win the group, but behind them Nigeria, Greece and South Korea all seemed to be fairly evenly matched. This is how it proved, with all three losing to Argentina, but South Korea beating Greece, who in turn beat Nigeria.

It all came down to this final day, then, with the remaining two fixtures in the group being played out at the same time on Tuesday afternoon. Greece were looking to get a positive result against Argentina to further their hopes of qualification, although this always looked unlikely, despite the South Americans rotating some of their key players. With Nigeria and South Korea both anticipating that Greece would struggle against a revitalised Argentina, those two sides would have felt that their match was the second place decider; a winner-takes-all encounter.

South Korea vs Nigeria was a crucial and tough match for both sides

Korea just needed to do better than Greece, with Nigeria not having secured any points in their opening two games. This meant that in all likelihood a draw would do, but Nigeria would certainly come out fighting.

Nigeria is a team of pace and power, who up to that point had not really found their feet in this tournament. Korea had lost 4-1 to Argentina in their last game, but had always identified this as their most important match.

The lineup was a relatively familiar one:

Jung Sung-ryong

Cha Du-ri          Lee Jung-soo          Cho Yong-hyung          Lee Young-pyo

Ki Sung-yeung          Kim Jung-woo

Lee Chung-yong                                                                                Park Ji-sung

Yeom Ki-hun

Park Chu-young

I was dubious about this lineup for two reasons, both of which I have talked about extensively before. At the back, the selection of Cha Du-ri was the biggest surprise. Clearly Huh opted for him over Oh Beom-seok because he felt Cha would be able to cope with the power and pace of the Nigerians better. Unfortunately, Cha has played the majority of his career as a striker, and has only relatively recently converted to right back. His defensive positioning and reading of the game are clearly lacking, and a coach such as Huh should have known that the possession of attributes such as pace and power alone is not enough: they have to be applied correctly. Against Greece, who were a poor side that offered little in attack, Cha was the perfect option, because he could get forward as he pleased, using his surging runs to trouble the Greek defence and to create space for teammates to attack. Against Argentina Huh opted for Oh, the more defensive-minded of the two, and a good technical player. He didn’t have the best game against Argentina, and really struggled against their attacking players. In my opinion, however, this would have been the case for just about any right back in the tournament, and I don’t think Oh will be the last in this World Cup to suffer a the hands of the likes of Messi and Tevez.

But was that performance by Oh enough for him to lose his place against Nigeria? Only Huh can know what his state of mind was like after the Argentina match, but I was very surprised that in a game when the main goal was not to lose – a draw would have been enough to see them go through assuming Greece lost to Argentina – Huh selected the attack-orientated and defensively ill-equipped Cha to start. What Korea needed in that game was to play calm, safe and clever possession football. Yes, Cha made a couple of decent runs forward, troubling the Nigeria defence, but his own defensive performance was abysmal. He was completely at fault for the first goal, revealing his utter lack of defensive awareness at the worst possible time. Furthermore, because he was so keen to get forward he repeatedly left huge gaps at the back that the Nigerians constantly looked to exploit on the counter. He hasn’t built up an effective defensive partnership with the centre backs or the midfield, and so he never gave them the chance or direction to cover him when he bombed forward. If I was the coach I absolutely would have gone for Oh from the start, and possibly would have brought Cha on in the second half when the Nigerians were already showing signs of cracking under the pressure to try and kill the game off with attacking football.

Cha was at fault for Nigeria’s opening goal (The video has been flipped – sorry)

The other decision I was not entirely appreciative of was that to stick with Yeom Ki-hun up front. I still don’t think Yeom has enough quality to play at this level, although this was probably his best game of the World Cup so far. The biggest plus-point in playing Yeom is that he’s left footed – an evidently rare commodity in this Korean side. That said, he brought little to the side, and has still failed to form an effective working partnership with Park Chu-young. Yeom is not a natural goal-scorer, and because he has failed to become a proper supporting player for Park the team lacks a cutting edge in the final third of the pitch.

I have to assume that Huh would only have chosen Yeom over Lee Dong-gook if the latter was still not entirely fit. If that is the case, then I think he should have sacrificed a second striker altogether, and gone for a more standard five man midfield. I’ve always said I want to see Ki Sung-yeung playing further forwards were he can cause more damage, and this would have been the perfect opportunity to give him the freedom and encouragement to do so. I would have started with Kim Jung-woo and Kim Nam-il as holding midfielders, with Ki Sung-yeung given a freer, more attacking role ahead of them down the centre. It then would have been his responsibility to release Park Chu-young, Park Ji-sung and Lee Chung-yong to try and get behind the Nigeria defence and to create more cohesive attacks closer to the penalty area. There’s always the option to bring on another striker, be it Yeom, Lee Dong-gook or even young Lee Seung-yeoul, if it’s needed later on.

As it was, however, Huh eventually did bring Kim Nam-il on to play in this formation. It backfired pretty spectacularly and pretty quickly, however, as he needlessly gave away a penalty when Korea were looking quite comfortable. Following that, though, the midfield looked a lot more secure, and I hope Huh considers playing like that from the start against Uruguay, who are a better team than Nigeria. It would, however, mean Ki playing a little differently to what he’s used to.

He’s such an intelligent player, and his technique is superb. He has great control and rarely gives the ball away, as well as being able to shoot well from distance and play outstanding passes. In my opinion he’s perfectly suited to playing behind a striker. If you’re not too familiar with him, I would say his playing style is somewhat similar to the likes of Portugal’s Deco or Croatia’s Luka Modric, although he still has a way to go before he reaches that level of course.

At the moment he seems a bit unsure of himself in this side. He’s being used as an orthodox central midfielder, partnering Kim Jung-woo. As I’ve already said, technically he’s excellent. What he needs to do if he’s to play in this position at the highest level, however, is to assert himself on the game more. He shouldn’t wait for the ball to come to him, he should seek it out, and he should have the confidence to try things and to try and make things happen for the team. Huh needs to fill him with this confidence, and I think using an extra central midfielder to offer more defensive security would take some of the weight off Ki’s shoulders. With Kim Nam-il and Kim Jung-woo anchoring the midfield and playing simple passes out, Ki would get more of the ball in situations where he can play the passes he wants to. He might find he has less time on the ball, but he needs to be able to compete under that sort of pressure, and I believe he can.

Ki Sung-yeung could be deployed further forward to utilise his attacking threat

As I’ve already said I feel Yeom contributes very little by way of attacking potency, summed up by his dreadful miss against Argentina when he was presented with the perfect opportunity to equalise. Park chu-young is obviously the outstanding striker in the Korean squad, but too often against Nigeria he was left isolated and so had to come deep to try and get the ball. With a more creative, passing player behind him in Ki Sung-yeung, Park would surely be able to get better service of the type he wants; through balls that he can run on to in order to use his pace to beat defenders and get closer to goal. Ki would also spread the ball out wide a lot better and in more attacking positions, meaning Park Ji-sung and Lee Chung-yong could get forwards more and provide more crosses and also get closer to goal to support Park Chu-young.

Talking of Park Ji-sung, he has been by far Korea’s best player at this World Cup. He’s so important to the team. I was doubtful when he was first named as captain whether he would have the leadership qualities necessary for the role, but he has proved himself over and over again. He’s really grown into the role; he inspires the team with his attitude and drive, but also with the quality of his play. He fully commits himself in defence and attack. I do think, however, that it’s about time the likes of Lee Chung-yong and Ki followed Park’s example. Lee especially can be a devastating player. He has such pace and trickery, and he loves to run at defenders. He showed against Argentina that he can score as well, and you can see he’s desperate to be given more of the ball. They need to bring him into play a lot more, and he can really add something to the way they play.

Park Ji-sung has been South Korea's inspiration in the World Cup so far

In the Nigeria game, Kim Jung-woo in midfield looked out of his depth. He looked slow and fragile and was beaten far too often. It was him who allowed the Nigerian right back to get the cross in which set up their first goal. It was poor midfield play, and unfortunately it was not the only time he was beaten so easily in the game. I remain unconvinced by the central midfield pairing of Kim Jung-woo and Ki Sung-yeung, so I’m desperate to see the five-man midfield I talked about above. Park Chu-young scored one excellent free kick and came close a number of other times. He has shown enough in the games so far that he can play as a lone striker as long as the service is good enough. Korea’s strength is in midfield, and they need to play to this.

Kim Jung-woo struggled at times in midfield, and would be helped by the introduction of Kim Nam-il

In the end, the Koreans showed they have the defiant fighting spirit that was so crucial to their success in 2002, meaning they could hold on to the draw and progress to the next round. There are some defensive frailties, but they have not failed to score in any of their three matches so far. To me it seems that all the components are there, but at the moment the team is playing within itself, never quite playing as well as it is capable of.

They can beat Uruguay, who have been very impressive up to this point, but it may take more than they showed against Nigeria. More clinical finishing is needed, as is more protection for the defence. I believe part of the solution is to change the formation, and it looks like maybe Huh Jung-moo is coming round to my way of thinking after he did adopt that formation after 63 minutes against Nigeria. Uruguay are a hard working team, but so are Korea. Uruguay have a few genuinely outstanding players in attack, so Korea will have to be careful. I don’t think Korea will get away with a 1-0 win because I think Uruguay will certainly score. This means Korea need to have enough about them in attack to put at least two goals away. Whether or not they win the game I believe will ultimately come down to whether or not they can play their best football in attack they way they like without leaving the defence too exposed.

South Korea showed fighting spirit to secure the result they needed

The team I would pick to play against Uruguay is:

Jung Sung-ryong

Oh Beom-seok          Lee Jung-soo          Cho Yong-hyung          Lee Young-pyo

Kim Nam-il          Kim Jung-woo

Lee Chung-yong                    Ki Sung-yeung                       Park Ji-sung

Park Chu-young

I think it would also be necessary to bring on Cha Du-ri for Oh in the second half, and perhaps to bring on another striker and revert to a more conventional 4-4-2 formation.

England manager Fabio Capello has done well in general. As he said when he first came into the job in 2008, his biggest and most important task was to restore some confidence to the players, and he managed to do that during the World Cup qualifiers. England scored a lot of goals, although they never looked as comfortable on the ball as the top sides – but then again no England side ever has over the last few decades. It did seem, however, that Capello’s England was a lot stronger then any England side had been in a long time.

England looked vibrant and impressive in the qualifiers

Part of the problems that we’ve now seen emerging in this World Cup, however, seems to be that England have a team full of players who are outstanding as one-man footballing weapons. For their clubs the other players get the ball to them, they do something special. They’re the pinnacles for their respective clubs, but put them together and they seem to cancel each other out. They need a few more players who do the simple things very well, players who can control, pass and move at pace and with accuracy.

Despite that, should it really be beyond players who have done the amazing things we’ve seen from them for their clubs, fitting brilliantly into their teams, to pass the ball accurately to each other? They absolutely have to be able to keep the ball and move the opposition around the pitch a bit. They do not need to look to make the killer ball every time they win possession.

On top of that, the final few warm up friendlies before the start of the tournament were pretty abysmal. With those performances against Mexico, Japan and the local South African side Platinum Stars, all of the confidence that Capello had rebuilt during qualification was lost. That just showed how fragile it must have been, and I’m not sure Capello could have known that would be the case. Perhaps he should have just played the same team that played so regularly in the qualifiers – more of the same – and perhaps the team would not have been the one everyone else seems to want to pick (Gerrard behind Rooney), but if they could have carried on from where they left off then the players would surely not have diminished once again to the fragile shadows of their regular selves that we’re seeing now.

The performance and the body language was very different from England against Algeria

Also, it might perhaps have been wise to have used players who were in good form for their clubs during the season when they first started demonstrating that form. When goalkeeper Joe Hart was playing regularly and well for Birmingham, he could have been introduced to the national team then and there. If he’d have played well there’d be no dispute over the first choice goalkeeper up to and even during the World Cup. Darren Bent is another example. People criticise him for his apparent poor form for England, but how many chances has he had? Heskey, Crouch and Defoe have all had plenty of opportunities to play and train with Rooney. Bent has only been given 6 caps for England, and he’s been thrown in and expected to reproduce his goal-scoring club form. Surprisingly, he hasn’t. If he’d been included at least in the squad from an earlier stage when he was consistently scoring in the league then perhaps he’d be better able to reproduce at England level and form a decent partnership based on some mutual understanding with Rooney.

Capello has made his choices, however, and fiercely defended them. Now he has his hardest ever choice to make – stick or twist. He’d built up this England team from nervous, underperforming individuals into a confident, goal scoring team. His formation and player/squad selections had, until recently, performed as required virtually faultlessly. It all came tumbling down in the warm up friendlies – not against the US or Algeria – and now he has to react.

Does he persist with the selections of formation and lineup that had previously served him well or change his ways, going against everything he’s argued for up until now. In making that decision I hope he takes into account the fact that the clubs England’s best players play for have altered their formations to correspond to developments across the global game. With Barcelona being so successful with their flowing passing style and (formerly) rather rare 4-3-3 formation, and Europe’s other great sides following suit with lone strikers and versatile attacking wide men, the likes of Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard and even Lennon have found their niche at club level.

Rooney had an outstanding season as a lone striker for Manchester United

Ferguson decided Rooney was best suited to being played as a lone front man being supported by a hard-working creator behind him and pacy wingers providing constant crosses and options when Rooney has to hold up the ball. Gerrard became that hard-working creator behind a lone front man at Liverpool, and Lampard did something similar, linking Chelsea’s midfield with their striker(s). The only person who as yet does not seem to have reacted to these international developments is Capello. How many teams play 4-4-2 these days? Admittedly, it suits some teams, but how many of the teams doing best so far at the World Cup or in Europe this season play such a formation? I would say none.

Capello should be brave now. Things change, in football as in everything else, and Capello should not feel that he has to live and die by his choices made previously. They served him well at the time. He should now accept that he must live and die by his decisions in the moment. If he decides to change things now, does he look weak? Does the image of authority and serene intelligence and tactical know-how slip if he decides to change a team that’s playing itself out of the World Cup? No. It would be far braver and I argue far more intelligent for him to alter his formation and tactics, to free up England’s best attacking players to play the way they do naturally, as they do for their clubs. There are some outstanding players in the squad, they don’t need to be shackled by rigid tactics and tactical commitments that they are not used to and that go against their natural inclinations. Moreover, if he is convinced that Gerrard and Lampard cannot both play together centrally for England (I see no reason why that would be the case based on recent performances when they have done so) then he always has the option to drop one of them.

One thing that stands out about Capello’s approach to the England job so far has been his conservatism. He’s picked an incredibly experienced and, let’s face it, old squad for this tournament. And yet there is no great lack of talented younger players in England. Perhaps some of those players, James Milner, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Tom Huddlestone, Micah Richards, Lee Cattermole, Michael Dawson, Adam Johnson, Joe Hart, Darren Bent and so on should have been given more opportunities earlier on. Those among them who have played have had few chances, but have always looked promising, passionate and hungry. They haven’t been tainted by the apparent failures of past campaigns, they all play fantastically well for their clubs. Most importantly, perhaps, the likes of Algeria, Mexico and Chile have all shown in this World Cup that you don’t need the most famous stars playing in order to be successful. Also, for Germany their young playmaker Mesut Ozil is not the most well-known player in the squad but he has so far been the best, Elia has done similar for the Netherlands and Navas for Spain. Perhaps Capello should have given far more opportunities to these sorts of young, hungry players to show that they can be better for the team than the famous individual stars.

One final point that seems to have surfaced since the start of the World Cup is that the England camp does not appear to be entirely harmonious. Capello has been acting even more brusquely and evasively than usual in his interviews, he’s shouted at the media, the players were angered on safari and now David James – one of only two England players along with Ashley Cole to have not played badly against Algeria – appears to have confirmed that the players are not completely happy with Capello’s methods and approach. If I was to guess at what exactly they are unhappy with I would say the formation, as discussed above, as well as the fact that Capello only names his starting lineup two hours before kickoff. It’s an unusual ploy, and one that seems to be backfiring.

Time for change. A change in formation, but also a change from the players. I’ve questioned some of Capello’s decisions here, and his lack of decision following poor warm up friendlies and opening games in the World Cup, but nothing can hide the fact that it was the players who underperformed on the pitch. Capello has a fantastic record as a manager, but it is the English players playing for England in the end who have to improve every facet of their mentality and their performance following the Algeria game.

Firstly, I love the World Cup! This one is no exception – some people have been complaining about the lack of goals so far. Personally, I think that was mostly because it was the first round of games and nobody wanted to lose. Now that there are teams who need wins we’re starting to see more open, attacking football. I also think it has something to do with the fact that there’s a much smaller difference in quality across al the 32 teams this times round. In previous competitions there were always some teams who never looked like they had a hope of winning a game, or even scoring sometimes. This time however Switzerland have beaten favourites Spain, North Korea made life very difficult for Brazil, Chile have played some of the best football and some of the pre-tournament favourites suddenly don’t look quite so secure. When you look at it like that, there are no easy groups, and some teams seemed to be worrying that with one mistake they could slip up and find themselves way of the pace – just look at France. In that particular case, however, I think the smart money was on them being awful. I predicted in my previous post that Uruguay would win the group, with Mexico coming second, and it looks like that may well be what happens.

Now, on to Korea!

They started the tournament immensely well, beating Greece 2-0. Admittedly, Greece were terrible, but South Korea still produced plenty of chances and played some flowing, attacking football. They really should have scored more – they had so many chances, but yet again their finishing let them down. This is beginning to become an all-too-familiar trend for Korea. At this level you have to take your chances. As it was, that had little impact on the game and they always looked comfortable. This is promising, because when Greece played Nigeria today, once they started to try and attack and pressure the Nigerians Nigeria struggled, and Greece went on to claim their first ever World Cup victory. Certainly, South Korea played much much better against Greece than Nigeria, which bodes well for their encounter on Tuesday.

Park Ji-sung celebrates his fine goal against Greece

Interestingly in the opening match, goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong started ahead of the experienced Lee Woon-jae. Again, I’ve written about this before, annoyingly predicting that Lee would be the one to start. What this shows is that manager Huh Jung-moo is brave enough to put his faith in the relatively inexperienced, but highly talented, Jung, over the ever-present Lee. Also in the last post I speculated that perhaps Jung would be moving to a bigger club abroad some time in the near future. I hope he does, because he seems like an honest, hard-working player, and I do think he’s good enough. His performances so far have been good, and he’s made some outstanding saves, although he could perhaps have done a little bit better for Argentina’s second goal today. Now that he’s cemented his place as Korea’s number one goalkeeper, however, I thoroughly expect him to maintain his position and continue his run of good form – he can only get better.

Also of note is that Cha Du-ri started the game against Greece at right back, being preferred for that match over Oh Beom-seok. Huh clearly went for that option with the intention of playing out-and-out attacking football against the weakest team in the group, and evidently it paid off. Against Argentina, the strongest team and one of the favourites to lift the trophy, however, he went for the safer option of Oh. Like I always say, Oh is the technically better player, but I do think he’s slightly lacking in pace and power, and offers far less than Cha going forwards. That was in evidence against Argentina, who really showed where Korea’s weak links are in their team, but more on that later. One final thing to say about Cha is… he’s a robot.

Cha Du-ri as a robot

Another thing worth mentioning from that match is that Park Ji-sung scored an excellent goal. He showed his true class and quality with that one. He sometimes gets criticised for not being able to create or score enough goals, and that he’s biggest contribution is simply to run around making life difficult for the opposition. True, he does make life difficult for the opposition, and he’s often used at Man Utd as a safer option out wide to disrupt the opposition wing play and provide a simple but effective option in attack, but just because he’s often instructed to play that way doesn’t mean that’s all he’s capable of. Over the last couple of seasons he’s been demonstrating that more and more, and this performance was just another example.

As for the Argentina match, it was quite predictable, really. With the first game successfully navigated Argentina were always going to be more intent on attacking and showing what they’re capable of. Unfortunately for Korea, I felt they got their tactics wrong in the first half. Right from kick-off they set themselves out to do nothing but defend, showing Argentina far too much respect. The inevitable happened, and soon enough they were 2-0 behind. Up until that point Korea had not been able to keep the ball, with each player taking far too long before making a pass. Argentina were tireless off the ball, led by Tevez, and hussled and harried Korea to get the ball back. Korea couldn’t get going, and in fairness, they never looked like they really wanted to. That’s the sort of lack of self-belief that costs you in tournament football, and Korea paid the price today. That said, Lee Chung-yong stole the ball from Demichelsis and finished superbly to halve the deficit going in to half time, and how they needed it. This gave the Koreans renewed hope, and they began the second half with vigor, looking to pass the ball around and try and attack the Argentines. They played well for about 20 minutes, and in fact Yeom Ki-hun should have scored an equaliser, but fired his shot frustratingly wide, opting to use his favoured left foot instead of the right, which would have been more suited to that situation. After that miss Argentina visibly seemed to realise that Korea were not necessarily the pushovers they had though based on the first half performance, and they began to attack again. It was too much for a Korea side who had just witnessed the best chance they were ever likely to get go painfully wide, and late on they conceded two more goals; one an unlucky one, a tap in for Higuain as the ball came back off the post, and the other a fine passing move that very few teams would have been able to stop.

South Korea were overcome by Argentina's wealth of attacking talent

Argentina have shown recently that no matter how potent they can be in attack, they are still far from the finished article in defence. They lack some pace, cohesion and concentration, and Korea should have been more willing to exploit this right from the start. It was almost an inevitability that Argentina would score, so Korea should have been looking to hold them off as much as possible, but to really have a go at the Argentina defence when they had the ball. Hopefully Huh will have learnt from this. Korea’s natural style is to attack, and when they do they can really frighten opponents. It’s effective, too, and they’ve taken some impressive scalps of late. I hope they bear this in mind going into their final game against Nigeria. If we assume that Argentina will beat Greece – which I do, Greece have looked to be perhaps the worst team at the tournament so far – then Korea only need a draw against Nigeria to go through to the next round. However, in the first half of this game they were playing with the aim of stifling Argentina and not conceeding, and look where it got them. It’s not their natural game, and they’re a far better team when they go forwards. I hope to see plenty of bravery against Nigeria, and an attacking display to win them the place in the next round that they deserve – they are a better team than either Nigeria or Greece.

I mentioned previously that the Argentina game showed where Korea’s weak links are. In my opinion they are: Oh Beom-seok/Cha Du-ri and Yeom Ki-hun.

In the case of Oh and Yeom, they’re talented players, technically sound, but at this level they just lack that something extra that’s required to compete with the best. In Oh’s case it’s pace and power, as well as some extra creativity going forwards.

In Yeom’s case, again some pace, and I also think he fails too often to provide the killer pass or to make goal-scoring opportunities for himself. In the K-League he’s clearly an outstanding player, but I just don’t think he’s able to raise his game to the standard required. Compare that with Lee Chung-yong, who snapped up a wayward touch from the defender and finished superbly – making his own opportunity and taking it with aplomb – and then set up Yeom’s chance. On top of that, when he was presented with the best chance of the match today to equalise the game at 2-2 against Argentina, all he had to do was shoot across the keeper with his right foot. Instead he went for his favoured left, trying to curl the ball with the outside of his foot into the near post. It failed miserably, and that was the moment when Korea seemed to stop believing. There are some outstanding players, such as Arjen Robben, who somehow manage to dominate games at this level despite seeming to only ever want to use one foot. Yeom is not one of those players, and so it really is a disappointment that he only trusts one of his feet enough to take a shot with it. Hopefully Lee Dong-gook will be available to start the rest of Korea’s games in this tournament, as he came on as a late substitution today. Park Chu-young always seems to give a better performance when playing with Lee than with Yeom, and Lee also offers far more of a goal threat.

Cha Du-ri is an experienced player with plenty of pace, power and the will to attack and drive forwards. He has spent most of his career as a striker, however, but now finds himself competing for the right back spot. As a striker he simply didn’t score enough goals, and as a right back he lacks defensively. I’d also like to see him providing a few more dangerous crosses.

Despite that, that’s only two real weaknesses in two positions, and in general the Korean team is strong. Today against Argentina they were able to bring on the likes of Kim Nam-il and Lee Dong-gook, so things look pretty positive really.

I have also been impressed with Ki Sung-yeung and especially Lee Chung-yong so far. As always, Ki’s passing is excellent, as is his close control. He still needs to look to join the attacks more, though, instead of just being content to start them. Lee looks as lively as ever, scoring today, and he was also the only player who ever looked like he really wanted to run at the Argentine players. These two are essential to Korea’s progression in this tournament, but I was also pleased that Kim Nam-il came on for Ki Sung-yeung and looked full of energy. He made Korea’s midfield far more dynamic, and it’s always good to see that Plan B works as well.

Lee Chung-yong was Korea's brightest player and scored an excellent goal

So, predictions for the coming games. I think Korea will get the result they need against Nigeria and progress from the group in second palce. This would mean they play the first-placed team from Group A. With things as they stand, I can’t decide between Mexico and Uruguay, although I definitely think they will be the teams to go through. How would Korea fare against those teams? I can’t be sure, but it should be close. They all like to play attacking, passing football. Both Mexico and Uruguay have outstanding attackers, but I think Korea’s midfield is perhaps capable of more. Still too early to say – and honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make a prediction on that game with any certainty.

Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika

Well, it’s taken me long enough to get around to writing this post, but I wanted to wait until the final warm up games against Japan, Belarus and Spain were out of the way, rather than writing a few same-same posts after each match. I’ll deal with them only briefly, because to be honest, they don’t have that much importance, and at this late stage there’s really very little information that can be gained from them: they’re not representative of tournament football, the coaches sample different tactics and try and get a last look at different players. They’ve historically been a very poor guide to a team’s form in the World Cup.

The Warm Up Games

First up was the match against Japan, which South Korea won 2-0 in Japan. The scorers were Park Ji-sung early on – a very classy goal – and Park Chu-young from the penalty spot at the death. By all accounts it was a well-deserved victory, and good to see Park Chu-young back and scoring. It was a fairly strong lineup throughout the match, but no significant developments in that front apart form the use of Jung Sung-ryong as goalkeeper for the whole match. More on that soon. Highlights below:

Next was the game against Belarus, which ended up being a 1-0 defeat. As I said before, you can’t really read too much into these games, and I just hope that this result encourages the Korean team not to be too complacent going into an evenly balanced World Cup group. Again, coach Huh Jung-moo put out a reasonable strength squad, but there was some rotation of players. I think this is a positive sign for the strength in depth of Korea’s squad outside of the few key players – everyone seems to be able to pull their weight and fit into the setup, which is good. Lee Woon-jae was back in goal, and Kim Dong-jin and Cha Du-ri both started. Some commentators feel that this poor result may have been as a result of the squad not having completely acclimatised to the high altitude at that early stage. Highlights below:

Finally, the big one, the 1-0 loss to Spain. First thing I will say on this is that losing 1-0 to arguably the best team in the world is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s arguably a better result for Korea than it is for Spain, but again, we shouldn’t try and take too much away from these games. The two teams would have set different priorities for this match, with Spain wanting to try out some of their fringe players and players who had been out with injuries to see how reliable they looked for the tournament, and Korea more willing to use the match as a yardstick – as a way of seeing how their squad measured up to the best in the world. That said, Spain in no way fielded a weak side, and it’s for that reason that I say Korea should be pleased with this result and take confidence from the fact that it was a game that seemed like ti could have gone either way going into the World Cup. The fact that Korea were so hard to break down, even for a team with the likes of Fabregas, Iniesta and Villa, bodes well for the match against Argentina. Korea’s defense has been inconsistent, but I hope they band together as a team against the tougher sides to shut them out and combine this with sharp counter attacking as we know they can. This article has some interesting player ratings for the game. Highlights below:

So, what do I make of all this? Well, I think it’s been pretty solid preparation – nothing overly impressive or special, but consistent enough, and the results have all been pretty decent apart from the loss to Belarus, although perhaps that was down to not being used to the high altitude. Looked much better against Spain, though, and gave them a real run for their money.

The Players

The most interesting points that I’ve picked up on are in the competition for places in the starting lineup. I’ve been very impressed and somewhat surprised by the two main goalkeepers, the veteran Lee Woon-jae and his deputy, Jung Sung-ryong. Neither has played outside of the K-League before, but that in no way means they’re not talented.

Lee is an interesting figure – short for a goalkeeper, but has incredible athleticism for someone of his age. He won’t be the only goalkeeper over 35 playing in the tournament, however, and so I don’t expect his age will be counted against him too much when it comes to making the final selections for the starting eleven. He’s experienced with well over 100 caps, and this experience really does tell in front of a back four that’s relatively inexperienced, except perhaps for Lee Young-pyo if he plays. Lee commands the penalty area, is a great leader in defense and knows what he’s doing. He’s an excellent shot stopper, and has a particular flair for dealing with long shots and crosses, thanks to his great athleticism. On the negative side, I’ve always had doubts about his handling. He prefers to punch or beat the ball away. Yes, he can make great saves, but sometimes as a defender you’d rather he held onto the ball more. Despite this, when he does punch and hit the ball away, it rarely seems to end up in a dangerous position, and I think Huh Jung-moo will feel confident that Lee is the right goalkeeper to help his team achieve their targets for this World Cup.

Behind him in the pecking order, though, is the young (25) Jung Sung-ryong. He may be relatively inexperienced, but he’s tall, athletic, and does like to catch and hold onto the ball. I’d never really seen much of him until the build up to this World Cup, and I was lucky enough to have seen him up close in the game against Ecuador a few weeks ago. My assessment of his performance then and ever since is overwhelmingly positive, and has even led me at times to speculate whether he might actually take the number one spot in the World Cup. Now all the war up games have been played and the first match is in just a few days time I can’t see this happening, simply because Lee’s experience is so necessary, and Huh won’t want to take any risks. That said, he’s perhaps an even more naturally talented keeper than Lee, and I fully expect him to be installed as the national side’s number one following the World Cup, and I expect he’ll retain that position for some time to come. At 190cms tall he also breaks the curse of Korean goalkeepers, who have been considered too short for the top clubs before. A move to a European club in the near future, then? I think it’s too soon to tell, and who knows whether any European clubs would realistically have their eye on the number two goalkeeper for South Korea at this stage. But if he keeps performing the way he has, who knows.

South Korea's promising young goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong wil be hoping to break into the team soon

The other main positions that I think Huh has been testing the players to try and fill are at right and left back, one fo the two centre midfielders, and perhaps the partner for Park Chu-Young. The places that I think have been almost certainly decided for some time are goalkeeper: Lee Woon-jae; the two centre backs, although losing Kwak to injury has meant a rethink there, meaning the partnership will probably be Lee Jung-soo and Cho Yong-hyung; Park Ji-sung on the left of midfield, Lee Chung-yong on the right and Ki Sung-yong in the middle, and Park Chu-young up front.

At left back, I’ve previously said that I expect both Kim Dong-jin and Lee Young-pyo to play a part in the World Cup, and I still think that will be the case. As for who will start, it’s not certain, but I think it will be Kim Dong-jin, although Lee seemed to have a very good game against Spain, which may have reversed the situation again! Too tough to call.

Right back is easier. In my opinion, Oh Beom-seok – the more technically able and sound player – will start, with Cha Du-ri used as an impact substitute for his pace, power and directness. Expect to see them both used during the tournament, however.

Huh has various options in whom he chooses to partner Ki Sung-yong in central midfield. Judging by his impressive performance against Spain I would say he’s probably tempted to go with Kim Jung-woo, who was also key to the victory over the Ivory Coast back in March. He’s also competing with the experienced holding midfielder Kim Nam-il – a personal favourite of mine who’s probably slightly too old to start matches at this level now – and perhaps even the 20 year old Kim Bo-kyung. Any of those players could fit in easily into the side, and again, expect to see them all at some stage, although I can’t imagine Kim Bo-kyung getting too much playing time, but it says a lot about what he’s capable of that he made the final squad over Shin Hyung-min, who impressed against Ecuador.

Ki Sung-yong - crucial to South Korea's World Cup ambitions

As for the partner for Park Chu-young, Monaco’s ace striker, if he’s fit it will surely be Lee Dong-gook. At the moment it looks like he’ll miss the opening game against Greece, which is a real shame. In his stead Huh could pick Yeom Ki-hun, the veteran Ahn Jung-hwan or the youngster Lee Seung-yeoul. From what I’ve seen of Yeom, he’s a decent player but he likes to stay too deep, and often too wide. With Korea’s star wingers I think it’s more important that Park Chu-young gets more support through the middle – he’s not at his best when he’s isolated, he’s just not that type of striker. Ahn is another veteran of 2002 who’s probably past his best, and shouldn’t expect to start any games, although he may be used as a substitute later on. I like the look of Lee Seung-yeol when I’ve seen him play for the national side, but I hope he doesn’t get too carried away with the reports of his talents and forget that he has to work incredibly hard for the sake of the team. He’s been used almost entirely as a substitute by Huh, so I see no reason why the coach would change this now. For the opening game against Greece my expectation is that Yeom will start up front with Park, and then be replaced by Lee later on. If things don’t work out like that, however, I would find it interesting to see one of the wingers moved into the middle – perhaps Park moving in from the left to play up front with Park Chu-young like he did with Rooney at times this season, and then either Yeom moving to the left where he can also play or bringing on another wide player to replace Yeom. Huh has options, this is the most important thing. I think it’s also important that one of the two central midfielders is willing to go forwards and help the attack – my preference being Ki Sung-yong. His range of passing is excellent, but at times he seems to want to lie deep to give himself more time on the ball. A player of his quality, however, needs to be more willing to get involved higher up the pitch to make things happen in front of goal when his team attacks – he needs to be more adventurous. I actually think he’s at his best when he plays like that.

The Group

I’m convinced, as most people are, that Argentina will win the group. There is no team among South Korea, Nigeria and Greece who can defend against the style of passing football that Argentina play. Plus, if 10 out of 11 players for Argentina can keep the opposition from scoring, then they only need to rely on a moment of magic from Messi, Tevez, Higuain, Aguero or Milito to grab a win. First place.

South Korea will hope they can stop Lionel Messi and co.

After that it gets more exciting, with the remaining three teams all fairly evenly matched. To my mind Greece are the weakest, and they were lucky to get through not only their qualifying group (in which they lost twice to Switzerland) but also their playoff against a well-organised and ultimately unlucky Ukrainian team. I expect Greece to finish bottom of the group.

That leaves South Korea and Greece. It really could go either way, but crucially perhaps Nigeria have just had star player John Obi MIkel, the Chelsea midfielder, ruled out of the entire competition through injury. Is their squad strong enough to cope with the loss of the heartbeat of their midfield? Will they be able to overcome the internal conflict and infighting that so often mires their international campaigns? I think they have more negatives against them than Korea do, despite having some excellent players. They far too often fail to gel as a team, and in attack I don’t think they offer enough. They have pace and power up front, but they don’t make it work as well as it looks like it should on paper. For that reason, and because I’m biased, I’m going for South Korea to come out on top and take the second qualification spot from their group.

Following that it gets harder to predict. Any team that gets out of their group will be high on confidence, but we’ll have to wait and see to know what their form will be like. If Korea do get out of the group in second place they face one of France, Mexico, South Africa and Uruguay. Tough, but thankfully not the toughest set of opponents they could have had. For what it’s worth (not a lot before the tournament even starts) I think Uruguay will win the group, and Mexico will take second place, meaning Korea will play Uruguay. Too tough to call… I think that’s a 50-50 game as things stand at the moment. I’ll make more predictions when I see what happens in the groups!

Make your own World Cup predictions here.

So, there we go, a guide to the World Cup from a South Korean perspective. Tell me what you think about their players, the group and their chances!