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Fourth place, with 3 wins, 2 losses, and 2 ties. This is Korea¡¯s record for this year¡¯s World Cup games. Korea tamed Poland winning 2-0 in the opening game of the 1st round of Group D, and achieved their dream of winning a match at the World Cup. After a tie with the United States, Korea beat Portugal 1-0, and then, as if that wasn¡¯t eventful enough, went on to the Round of 16 to dump Italy 1-0. The miraculous feat of reaching the semifinals was realized when Korea beat Spain in the semi-finals.
There were regrets, however, after Korea lost two successive matches to Germany (1-0) and Turkey (3-2). In the match with Turkey, the team allowed a goal just 11 seconds into the first half, setting a dubious World Cup record.
Korea scored eight goals in seven games (average of 1.14 goals per game) and allowed 6 goals (average of 0.85 goals per game). Out of 89 shooting attempts, 44 were on goal, which is almost a 50-percent success rate. The two penalty kicks were both unsuccessful. There were also 133 fouls and 14 of them were warnings. Twelve received yellow cards, including Kim Tae-young (2 times), Choi Jin-cheol, Kim Nam-il, and Yoo Sang-chul, but no one was thrown out of the game.
Midfielder Song Jong-gug and goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae showed fine skills and physical strength by playing a total of 687 minutes in the seven games, including two overtime games. Park Ji-sung (634 min.), Hong Myung-bo (596 min.), Seol Ki-hyeon (594 min.), and Yoo Sang-chul (574 min.) followed them.
Also, Ahn Jung-hwan, Lee Chun-soo, and Kim Tae-young played in all games as either a starting or alternate player. Kim Byung-ji, Choi Eun-sung, Choi Sung-yong, Yoon Jong-hwan, and Hyun Young-min sat on the bench and did not play even one minute throughout the games.
(Sung Jin-hyuk, jhsung@chosun.com )
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