Korea RepublicKorea Republic - National football team
The Korea Republic national football team represents the Republic of Korea in international football competitions. The team, also known as South Korea, is recognized as Korea Republic by FIFA.
South Korea has participated in seven World Cup final tournaments and became the first and only Asian team to reach the semi-finals, doing so when it co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Japan. South Korea is considered as one of the most successful international football teams in Asia. It has qualified for its eighth World Cup final tournament, the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, having been the only unbeaten team during the AFC qualification tournament.
Korea Republic - VideoKorea Republic - NewsKorea Republic - National football team
[1] It won the first two editions of the AFC Asian Cup.
Since the 2000s, South Korea has emerged as a major football power in Asia, winning several prestigious Asian football championships, including the first two Asian Cup tournaments. The South Korean national team has also played in six consecutive World Cup finals from 1986, making a total of seven World Cup finals in all. It recently qualified for its eighth World Cup finals by qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
In their first World Cup finals tournament, the 1954 World Cup, South Korea played games against Hungary and Turkey losing 0-9 and 0-7, respectively. The South Korean team was inexperienced and had a long and complicated flight schedule prior to arriving at the tournament which helped contribute to their big losses.
It took 32 years before South Korea was again able to participate in the World Cup finals when they qualified for the 1986 World Cup held in Mexico City. They lost 3-1 to Argentina, held Bulgaria 1-1, and narrowly lost to Italy 3-2.
Until the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which it co-hosted with Japan, the South Korean team was unable to garner a single win at any of the tournaments. Despite spirited play and good effort, South Korea has lost or drawn all of its matches except for in the last two tournaments which were held in 2002 and 2006..
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GreeceGreece - National football team
The Greece national football team represents Greece in international football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation. Greece spent most of their history in relative obscurity, having participated only twice in the final tournaments of the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship, in 1994 and 1980 respectively. But it was in the UEFA Euro 2004, when Greece were crowned European champions in only their second participation in the tournament, in one of international football's greatest surprises. The Greeks, dismissed as rank outsiders before the tournament with bookmakers giving odds of between 80–1 to 150–1 for them to win, defeated some of the favourites in the competition including defending champions France and hosts Portugal; the latter succumbed twice to Greece, the first time coming in the inaugural game of the tournament and the second in the final.
Since then, Greece have received several distinctions for their triumph and have reached a higher status in international football.
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They have also been proven more competitive than they used to be and often reach high places in the FIFA World Rankings. Furthermore, the team attracts large numbers of fans not only at home matches, a rare phenomenon in the previous years, but even when they play abroad, providing the team with great support. For instance, a friendly clash between Australia and Greece in 2006 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in Melbourne, Australia, set a stadium attendance record for association football attracting 95,103 fans, a portion of whom originated from the large Greek Australian community..
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