South Korea confident after World Cup draw

SEOUL - The coach and players of the South Korean national football team say they have hard nuts to crack in their 2010 World Cup group but the challenge is surmountable.

South Korea, which holds FIFA’s best World Cup record in Asia and was a semifinalist of the 2002 tournament at home, is pitted against Argentina, Nigeria and Greece in Group B.

“I think this won’t be easy, but we’ll have a chance to advance to the next round,” coach Huh Jung Moo was quoted as saying by South Korean broadcaster MBC Saturday.

He promised that his team would do “absolutely its best to achieve that goal.”

South Korean players and media were agreed in describing two-time World Cup champion Argentina as the group favourite, but the other two opponents as teams they can beat.

“Group B is really not easy, but it is possible to succeed,” midfielder Lee Chung Young, who plays at Bolton Wanderes in England’s Premier League, told online outlet sportalkorea.com.

Lee said he was looking forward to play against Argentina’s best player Lionel Messi.

“Argentina is definitely a strong team, but the rest we can surmount”, news channel YTN commented. Nigeria was a strong African team, but is weaker now than it was before, it said.

“I am sure we can beat Greece,” South Korea’s Kim Do Heon told YTN.

South Koreans have high expectations that the country will advance like it did in 2002, he said.

Meanwhile, North Korea, which will appear at the World Cup finals for the first time in 44 years and was one of South Korea’s opponents in the Asian qualification rounds, has probably been drawn in the toughest group of next year’s tournament in South Africa.

The national team from the communist north of the Korean peninsula will face five-time World Cup champion Brazil, and the strong teams of Ivory Coast and Portugal.

North Korea’s striker and best-known player outside his own country, Jong Tae Se, told sportalkorea that he was happy to not only appear at the World Cup finals but also with the draw.

“I always wanted to play against the strongest team of the world,” Jong was quoted as saying on the phone from Japan, where he plays for Kawasaki Frontale in the J-League.

“I am not afraid, I think it’s a great opportunity and a challenge. I will be very ambitious.”