Sapporo Dome photo by Yumemi.K

UFWC challengers South Korea have named their squad for the forthcoming title match against champions Japan, to be played on 10 August in Sapparo.

South Korea, or Korea Republic, have come as close as anyone to defeating Japan during their current reign. With a damaging match-fixing scandal (in which ten K-League players were handed lifetime bans) currently enveloping South Korean domestic football, the country will be looking to the national side to restore some pride. Can they unseat Japan and become Unofficial Football World Champions?

The two sides are hardly strangers, having met twice already in the UFWC competition within the last 12 months. Last October, in Japan’s first UFWC title defence, the teams played out a 0-0 draw, and in January, in the Asian Cup semi final, Japan won on penalties.

That epic match saw the Koreans take the lead through a Ki Sung-Yeung penalty, only for Ryoichi Maeda to grab an equaliser. 1-1 after 90 minutes, the game went into extra time. Japan took the lead – Hajima Hosogai scoring from a rebound after a Keisuke Honda penalty was saved. But, in the final minute of extra time, South Korea equalised through Hwang Jae-Won. In the penalty shoot-out, Eiji Kawashima saved the first two Korean penalties, and the third was fired high and wide. Japan won the shoot-out 3-0.

Since that match, just like Japan, South Korea have remained unbeaten, having drawn with Turkey and defeated Uzbekistan, Honduras, Serbia and Ghana. They’ve scored 11 goals in their last five games, while Japan have only scored three in their last five. Japan, however, haven’t conceded a goal since the two put past them by the Koreans in January.

South Korea have only ever won one UFWC title match, in January 1995, and that victory is somewhat controversial. This was during the Carlsberg Cup Chinese New Year Tournament, played in Hong Kong. South Korea beat reigning champions Colombia 1-0 to take the title, and at the time the game was regarded as a full international. However, it was retrospectively removed from FIFA’s records on the basis that South Korea had apparently fielded an under-21 side.

Looking back at the match records, it turns out that 10 of the 11 South Korean players fielded against Colombia also played in their country’s match against China on 19 February 1995. And that match still stands in the FIFA records as an ‘A’ match. So the reclassification of the match seems to be an error. In any case, for UFWC purposes we decided not to reclassify the match, and the result stands.

Korean coach Cho Kwang-Rae has named his squad for the match – with some caveats. The 24-man squad contains 15 overseas players, and Cho says he will not select players who are likely to be in action for their clubs. New Sunderland signing Ji Dong-Won is among the overseas players who may not end up being selected for the match. Other British-based players in the squad are Celtic pair Cha Du-Ri and Ki Sung-Yueng, and Lee Chung-Yong of Bolton.

The full squad is:

Goalkeepers: Jung Sung-Ryong (Suwon Bluewings); Kim Young-Kwang (Ulsan Hyundai); Kim Jin-Hyun (Cerezo Osaka)
Defenders: Park Joo-Ho (FC Basel); Lee Jae-Seong (Ulsan Hyundai); Kim Young-Kwon (Omiya Ardija); Kwak Tae-Hwi (Ulsan Hyundai); Park Won-Jae (Jeonbuk Motors); Lee Jung-Soo (Al-Sadd); Cho Young-Cheol (Albirex Niigata); Cha Du-Ri (Celtic)
Midfielders: Lee Yong-Rae (Suwon Bluewings); Kim Bo-Kyung (Cerezo Osaka); Kim Jung-Woo (Sangju Sangmu Phoenix); Ji Dong-Won (Sunderland); Koo Ja-Cheol (VfL Wolfsburg); Ki Sung-Yueng (Celtic); Lee Chung-Yong (Bolton); Yoon Bit-Garam (Gyeongnam FC); Nam Tae-Hee (Valenciennes)
Forwards: Son Heung-Min (Hamburg SV); Lee Keun-Ho (Gamba Osaka); Park Chu-Young (Monaco); Kim Shin-Wook (Ulsan Hyundai)

UFWC News japan, south korea

Japan 2-2 South Korea (After Extra Time; Japan won 3-0 on penalties)
Doha, Qatar – 25/01/11
Scorers: Maeda 36, Hosogai 98 (Japan); Sung-Yeung 23 (pen), Jae-Won 120 (S. Korea)

UFWC champions Japan were given a major scare by challengers South Korea, and needed extra time and a penalty shootout to emerge victorious, and advance to the Asian Cup Final.

Japan started the game much better, constantly splitting the South Korean defence open with beautiful, flowing football. But it was South Korea who drew first blood. The referee awarded a soft penalty to South Korea, as Yasuyuki Konno and Park Ji-Sung collided in the box, the South Korean going down under the challenge. Most referees would not have awarded a penalty but Khalil Al Ghamdi did, and Ki Sung-Yeung didn’t let the chance go to waste. Goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima guessed the right direction but couldn’t reach it, as the South Koreans took the lead. Koo Ja-Cheol could have made it 2-0 shortly after, but the Japanese defence recovered just in time to prevent the chance.

South Korea’s lead would only last 13 minutes, as Japan once again opened them up with slick passing, this time culminating in a goal. Yuto Nagatomo received the ball on the right of the box and placed an inch-perfect pass into the path of Ryoichi Maeda who, despite being surrounded by defenders, managed to reach the ball first and direct it into the net for the equaliser.

In the next few minutes both sides could easily have taken the lead. First South Korea, who had a free kick to the right of the box. The excellent shot was directed towards the top corner, forcing Kawashima to pull of a world-class save. The ball deflected straight to a South Korean head, whose effort was knocked off the line, Japan barely escaping. Then Japan had their own chance, as Keisuke Honda’s low piledriver forced Jung Sung-Ryong to dive to his left, producing a good save. Another close shave for South Korea shortly followed, as the teams went into half-time level, with an entertaining second-half seemingly guaranteed.

Unfortunately for neutrals that never materialised, as it seemed both teams were playing for extra-time since the restart. Chances were few and far between, with decent chances even rarer. So to save you all the misery of reading what happened in the second-half, we’ll skip straight into extra-time.

It still looked like the teams were just going to play out the game, but another penalty, this time for Japan, changed the tempo of the match. Al Ghamdi awarded a penalty for a foul on Shinji Okazaki, however even with the help of replays it is still hard to tell whether the offence happened inside or outside the box. Nevertheless, Keisuke Honda stepped up to take the penalty, but with a poor kick was saved by Sung-Ryong. Unluckily for him, he spilled it straight into the path of the oncoming Hajima Hosogai, who hit it onto the net go give Japan the lead, and seemingly the win.

However this game still had a few surprises up its sleeve, as South Korea drew level in the final minute of extra-time. A long free-kick was lobbed into the box where chaos ensued, neither side able to get a clear contact on it to clear it or shoot it. That was until it fell to Hwang Jae-Won, who struck the ball through defenders and teammates, out of the reach of Kawashima and into the bottom corner. South Korea, who were on the brink of elimination, had come up with a last-ditch effort, and would now go into the penalty shoot-out (the first shootout in the UFWC since 2006) with the momentum firmly behind them.

But it seemed nobody told Kawashima. While Japan scored their first two penalties, their goalkeeper saved both strikes from South Korea, as they were once again left on the brink of elimination. Japan missed their third penalty, firing the ball wide and over, but Hong Jeong-Ho couldn’t take advantage as he did the exact same thing, on the other side of the goal. Yasuyuki Konno stepped up, knowing a goal would be enough for victory. And it was, as the keeper guessed the wrong way, and Japan emerged from a tough encounter victorious.

Japan defended the UFWC title, and will bring it with them to the Asian Cup Final, where they will face either Australia or Uzbekistan to decide who will emerge as Asian Cup and UFWC champions. You don’t want to miss what will surely be a match to remember, and will go down in UFWC history.

UPDATE: Australia beat Uzbekistan 6-0 to reach the Asian Cup final and play Japan in the next UFWC title match on Saturday.

Match Reports japan, south korea