Park to face Korea's 'Rooney' in South vs. North World
Cup qualifier
SEOUL, South Korea - After playing week in and week out alongside Wayne
Rooney, Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung will get his first look
at the North Korean version in next week's World Cup qualifier.
Striker Jong Tae Se has earned the nickname "North Korea's Rooney"
thanks largely to two sizzling goals scored in last month's East Asian
championships.
For his part, the Japan-based Jong is relishing the chance to face Premier
League regular Park.
"I know all about Park Ji-sung and am really looking forward to seeing
for myself just how good he is," Jong said.
There are some intense rivalries in international soccer but few matches
are as politically charged as a meeting between South and North Korea.
Although fighting in the Korean War ended on the battlefield in 1953,
the two countries have never signed a peace treaty and are technically
still at war.
And despite a recent thawing in relations, divisions are still wide enough
that the 2010 World Cup qualifying match had to be moved from Kim Il Sung
Stadium in Pyongyang because authorities in the north refused to fly the
southern flag and play the southern anthem at the match.
Instead FIFA, soccer's international governing body, moved the March 26
match onto neutral ground at Shanghai, China.
Both teams won their opening games in Group 3. South Korea thrashed Turkmenistan
4-0 in Seoul while the North won 1-0 in Jordan.
The last time the two met in World Cup qualifying was for the 1994 tournament.
South Korea won 3-0 at Doha, Qatar in October 1993. That defeat prompted
a withdrawal from the international arena by the North. The secretive
state refused to enter qualifying for the 1998 and 2002 World Cups.
Meanwhile, South Korea reached the semifinals at the 2002 World Cup it
co-hosted with Japan, improving on North Korea's quarter-final appearance
in 1966 as the best finish by an Asian team.
North Korea hasn't hit the same heights since '66 but has shown that it
is capable of competing with the South.
There have been four meetings since the Doha defeat. South Korea won a
match in August 2005, but the others have ended tied, including the 1-1
result at last month's East Asian Championships.
North Korea was impressive, despite being reduced to 10 men for much of
the game.
Jong, fresh after scoring a great goal against Japan three days earlier,
repeated the feat against the South and his star started to rise.
Quickly compared with Rooney by the Seoul press, the 24-year-old striker
is fast, powerful and dangerous.
Jong scored 12 goals in 24 games in 2007 for J-League team Kawasaki Frontale,
his first full season in Japan's top domestic league, and is being targeted
by big clubs both in Japan and South Korea.
The South Korean national team, restricted to three goals in seven Asian
Cup matches last summer, would also love to select Jong; after all he
is a South Korean citizen.
Born in Japan to South Korean parents, it was only after attending a series
of pro-north schools in Japan that Jong asked to revoke his southern citizenship.
This request was refused by the Seoul government which doesn't recognize
North Korea as a country. Fans in the north as well as teammates are simply
glad he is on their team.
"North Korea has in the past usually been a team that thought about
safety-first but now we have a strong and reliable attacker in Jong we
can attack more," said midfielder An Yong Hak.
South Korean coach Huh Jung-moo is wary.
"The North Korean players have played together for a long time and
are very well organized and mentally strong. We are going to focus on
blocking Jong Tae Se's counterattacks," Huh said.
One bright spot for Huh is that unlike the Kim Il Sung Stadium in North
Korea's capital, Shanghai's Hongkou Stadium does not have artificial grass
and will not be crammed with 100,000 partisan North Korean fans.
"I would have liked to have seen Pyongyang once and it's a shame
that won't happen, but it is better for us to play on real grass in Shanghai,"
Huh said.
South Korea's English-based contingent has been summoned to China. Park
Ji-sung will be joined by Fulham's Seol Ki-hyeon, Lee Young-pyo of Tottenham
Hotspur and West Bromwich Albion's Kim Do-heon.
, 21.03.2008
Russian ladies dream about happy marriage.
Click on a photo...
