World Cup Group B preview: South Korea v Greece
With Argentina and Nigeria still to come, both South Korea and Greece will see this game as an opportunity to grab a vital three points.
It doesn’t look to be a promising game, but winning will be all that matters for either side.
Eight years since their remarkable semi-final feat was achieved under Guus Hiddink, South Korea will be the slight favourites heading into this encounter. Although they have a tight defence, scoring could prove to be a problem for them, as they only scored 12 goals during their qualifying campaign.
They will look to AS Monaco striker Park Chu-Young and former Middlesbrough forward Lee Dong-g**k to score the goals. Captain and Manchester United star Park Ji-Sung is the key man for South Korea and most of the attacks will come through him. The tireless midfielder provides the energy to galvanise the team.
Defender Lee Jung-Soo has emphasised the importance of this match. “We believe that we have to win the Greece game in order to go to the first knockout round, and therefore we will be focused on winning this match. And we’d also like to show the South Korean people that we are one step closer to the next round,” he said.
Manager Huh Jung-Moo may not be a Hiddink, but he has installed a strong teamwork ethic within the team, and departing after the tournament, he could enable Asia’s most successful World Cup team to snatch second in the group, assuming Argentina will come top.
For Greece, the 2004 European Champions, they have a terrible World Cup record, as they have failed to get a single point or even score a single goal in the finals.
Striker Theofanis Gekas was the top European scorer throughout the qualifiers, and the national side will look to him again to grab the goals and break the duck.
Greece coach Otto Rehhagel delivered the nation’s greatest achievement in 2004, but achieving something like that again is highly unlikely. The Greeks have not had a good start even before their first game has begun, as three of their players were robbed while they were out training.
They had an easy qualifying group, but the group they are faced with for the World Cup is more difficult.
Tags: