After baseball loss, focus shifts back to football

Last week, South Korea suffered a devastating loss.

In front of more than 54,000 fans, the team lost 5-3 to bitter rival Japan in Los Angeles, more than 5,400 miles from the comforts of home, according to the New York Times.

But, just one month before, South Korea’s Suwon City Bluewings team beat the Los Angeles Galaxy, also in the City of Angels, winning the Pan-Pacific Championship.

Now the country’s football team has a chance to redeem the loss of its treasured baseball team when it takes on North Korea in a World Cup qualifying match on April 1 at Hongkou Football Stadium in Shanghai, China.

The game not only represents the resumption of 2010 World Cup qualifying, but also signifies a chance for South Korea to add to its record against its neighbors to the north. Last September, the two team drew 1-1.

After South Korea co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with Japan, the sport boomed when it became the first Asian national team to reach the World Cup semi-final, defeating Spain on penalties.

Despite South Korea’s football team’s first international competition dates all the way back to the 1948 Summer Olympics, it held second to baseball, which won recent Olympic gold in Beijing in August 2008.

Now, with players such as 28-year-old Park Ji-sung, a Suwon City native who plays midfield for historic Manchester United in the English Premier League and has captained the South Korean football team, the sport continues its popularity.

And, don’t forgot, there’s a friendly match tomorrow between South Korea and Iraq, and be sure to check out some footage from a June 2008 match between South and North Korea.