With nine days to go to the kick-off of the FIFA World Cup Finals, the country's soccer fans now have high hopes for the national team especially with the strong play they've shown recently in beating Scotland 4:1 and drawing with England 1:1. When Korea and Japan were chosen to co-host the 2002 FIFA World Cup to represent Asian soccer prowess in 1996, many observers said there were no worries for off-the-pitch issues, but there were concerns about the level of play compared to the international powerhouses.

Knowing this the Korea Football Association set out on an intensive course to nurture world-class athletes. "From the beginning to now the team has made big changes in different concepts of playing in the more modern demanding way of playing football. I think they did not begin well, but we chose a very difficult road, now they have the experience now they know more and more how to cope with the demands of international football," says Dutchman Guus Hiddink the head coach of the team.

Hiddink is of course is at the helm of the development process, but the KFA also hired other top-notch foreign experts such as assistant coach Pim Verbeek, and Jan Roelfs, the technical coordinator. This upgrade in training personnel is helping to identify the team's strong points and the areas that need improvement.

Technically the players are superb, left-footed and right-footed, but they have had to put a lot of emphasis on the tactical game where they have to improve on and that's where the technical staff with Hiddink as head coach have been working very hard on; to bring it up to a higher level. The personnel changes have also led to a systems upgrade including state-of-the-art match analysis. The KFA has brought in one of the few game analysts in the world who works with the newest digital technology to offer the best breakdown of the team performance.

"My goal is to help Mr. Hiddink in anyway I can, I think my role that I'm playing is identified by him and defined by him. I try to create as many images to tactically improve our team, and I also try to create images that pyschologically can give us an edge."

Many analysts say the KFA's efforts have resulted in dramatic strides in the national team's levels of performance, endurance, and organization. "With support like this there is greater chance to advance into the second round of 16, and not only that they'll be able to push Korean football to another level," said a KFA official.

(Arirang TV)