Polls vs. the Pundits; will Korea advance to the final four?

there are no conspiricies behind korea’s pass to the semifinals in 2002. People just hate because they lost bets due to korea’s wins. I never expected them to get so far but people need to admit they were pretty good that year. I’ve been to korea for 2002 n the support they have for thier team is just incredible, it makes me want to be a red too.

i think brazil has it again this year. i don’t know if they will be in the final four this year but I fully support them too!!!

Posted from  United States

LOL….look at all these racist rednecks in here talking about fixing? why is that every whiteboy cant handle it when an Asian or African country does well??? Is always because they “cheated or fixed!” LOL……..these sorry chumps make me laugh. Yeah ok, FIFA has korean president, korean officials, Koreans just all across>LOL…….it all comes out….racist b.s. why is that SOME racist whiteys lose like a man? And during those matches, there wasn’t a single Korean refering….if anything Italy cheated big time and played dirty against Korea and any astute fan would know this… Stupid idiots. But than again, fools never seem to amaze me.

dude, we cant make it to the next stage. i say we will beat togo, get annihilated by france and unfortunately lose or tie switzerland~
anyone? your thoughts?

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

yeah…i think that we will beat togo and with all their current problems with their coach and pay, the togolese can’t be stable at all. i think we have a fair game with france but they will win by a goal and i have switzerland and s.korea to be the most boring match of the tournament. im still sitting on the fence on whether s.korea can progress..before the norway and ghana matches i thought korea would progress but now, im not sure.

also switzerland looks like one of those frustrating and boring teams..very defensive and not much attacking.

Posted from  United Kingdom

korea did cheat, everyone on earth konws that. ashamed on that.

Posted from  Canada

First of all – Some of those who are posting comments for all of the world to see should first learn how to spell and type. They should at least before others presume (and rightfully may presume) that they are ignorant. Let me first say that I am Korean, but I am not one of those Asians who are ethnocentric in any way. There, so I posted any possible bias you could possibly see in the following statement I am about to make. Yes, South Korea stunned the world when it made it to the Final Four in the 2002 World Cup. Why can’t you admire their rise instead of anticipating their fall?
If South Korea cheated in any way to get as far as they did, then I am dishonored and ashamed, but as of yet, I am neither. I am not either dishonored or ashamed because they did not cheat. How could cheating pass in such an internationally recognized event, such as the World Cup,which holds the scrutiny of the whole world? Please get your facts straight before you publicly announce (once again) your ignorance and childish manner.

Posted from  United States

Alright Korea has beat Togo 2-1.
Lets get back to the question: Will Korea advance to the Final four?

I highly doubt it. However they still have a chance. In 2002 they did in fact improve drastically.

DO NOT claim that they cheated if you do not have any proof. One of the factors to how they did so well is because they are the home team. The crowd / fan support certainly helped alot.

As far as I can see, Korea one of the best crowd support in the world (In 2002, they made 50 million “Be the Reds” shirts although Korea has 43 million in population”).

They had the right coach, the right location and the right amount of spirit.

However, this year poses a lot of problems. They have a different coach and they are missing their star player. In the game against Togo, it seemed that all hope was gone at the first half. One can argue that they barely beat Togo (A player got a red card, Korea got a freekick) Now don’t get me wrong Korea still has a chance to at least tie France but statistically France has the upper hand.

So all you blind patriots can stop being ignorant…

Posted from  Canada

(Korean-Canadian)

Korea won’t make it to the final four; yes, some of the 2002 World Cup games where they won did look VERY suspicious (especially the one where they beat Spain. Or else the ref was just really, really bad.) Anyway, I’m pulling for Spain to hopefully get at least to the semi-finals because the Spanish players took their leave in 2002 with a lot of class, AND they have a lot of rising talent. Their passes between each other are seamless.

I’ll be happy if Korea get out of the first round (and it’s realistic to hope that they do, yay.) I think they have a chance to hold off France, considering France’s dismal performance these days; they might get through the Swiss. I was afraid of France before, but now…I don’t know. I don’t know what happened to them since 1998; they were glorious back then.

Well, we’ll see.

Posted from  Canada

I might add, I would be more confident of Korea if they had Lee Dong-Gook.

Posted from  Canada

No, I don’t think Korea will advance to the Final Four, but I hope they play well against France and Switzerland so that they may advance to the next round at least. This is a great chance to gain the respect of other countries, especially (as indicated here by some of the comments posted) since many are under the impression that Korea cheated its way to the 2002 semi-finals. I’m going to root for Korea along with Japan and Germany. It’s all about the futbol spirit!

Posted from  United States

Korea leads the group with 3 points, France and Swiss have 1 point a piece with Togo at 0 with 1 game. Togo will be tough as they’re in the corner. Korea needs to win to lock in advancing, but depending on how the rest of the games play out, it’s still all up in the air. Until that moment though, I just got to root Korea on!

Posted from  United States

Another game that Korea moves one with referees dissallowing legit goals, Viera’s header was clearly a goal, yet another ref ignores it. You need to stop paying off refs? Maybe now that your “Supreme Scientist” Hang wo Suk has demostrated to the world that Cheating is endemic to Korea, someone will look into all these ridiculous calls going your way.

Posted from  United States

interesting. Korea leads the group after 2 games with togo and france.

and those of you who say korea cheated in the previous world cup, i bet your countries never even made it to world cup. pity.. canada(never ever made it to world cup), australia (this is your first time in like 40 years)… and united arab emirites (no comment on your soccer skills.. they are pathetic..)

Posted from  Canada

David comments from the country of Enron.

Posted from  Canada

Wow, it seems that everyone who posts here believes that Korea cheated.

The answer to that ridiculous claim? NO. That’s all the answer you idiots need.

I don’t think Korea will make it this year… They had alot of trouble with France as is, how would they fair against GERMANY or BRAZIL??? Although France is a very good technical team, I just think Korea lacks the extra ‘oomph’ to make it. I think they have a decent chance making it out of their group though, tied France 1-1, great job on Advocaat’s behalf analyzing the France team’s playing style/formation and playing it wide in the 2nd half. Sure made a difference!

Posted from  United States

The only reason why Korea made it to the final four last world cup was because the referees sided with them. Korea was and still is the best Asian team. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they made it to the second round this time. But they would need a miracle to reach the third round.

Korea needs a win against Switzerland in order to advance to the second round. Switzerland has a +2 GD (GF2:GA0) while Korea only has a +1 GD (GF3:GA2). That means Switzerland could advance to the second round with a draw against Korea. France, however, has a +0 GD (GF1:GA1)but their upcoming match against Togo would no doubt be a push over. Note that France would improve to at least a +1 GD after their victory against Togo. But even with a +1 GD, France would still be able to advance to the second round because they have a better preliminaries statistics (GF14:GA2:GD12)than Korea (GF18:GA7:GD11). And if Korea drawn Switzerland which has a prelim stat of (GF22:GA11LGD11), France would advance to the second round as the group leader for the same reason. My predictions: Switzerland draws Korea 1:1, France defeats Togo 3:0.

All you mother fucking koreans shutup! im sorry! i dont want to seem racist by calling Koreans out like that, but spain and italy deserved to win those games. Spain especially, they take away 2 goals that really were goals and then u guys have the nerve to say ” korea didint cheat” thats total bullshit! whatever, in 2006 world cup, Korea couldlnt cheat this time, they didint make it to the second round cuz of it, they suck, they always will suck, they have no technique, no strenght, they just run all day long. they suck.

Posted from  United States

As expected, Korea failed to advance. Without the referees on their side this is as far as Korea can get with their soccer skills. Korea were lucky to have got four points, they lucked out againt France that the second goal against them wasn’t counted. The only reason why they were leading the group earlier was because they played Togo first. Togo was a team with low skill, moral, and many internal problems. That’s why they were one of the only three teams to lose all three matches. Defeating such a weak team is not a feat Korea should be proud of especially when Korea handed them their only goal in the tournament.

fuck the south korean team they suck! i cant believe people say they didint cheat, they def paid the refs, if it was the south korean team that didint, it was another korean!

Posted from  United States

shut the fuck up marco. At least we went to the last four fucker

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

yea thanks to the ref asshole…u dont know shit about soccer. the refs are ruining hte game, like today, that was no penalty in the Italy Australia game. bullshit refs ruingin this great sport.

Posted from  United States

Ha! Do I hear crying about the penalty called against Australia that won Italy the match? What about the red card to Materazzi that wouldn’t even be a yellow in most professional leagues????? The ref did his best to fix the match so you Aussies could go the quarters, but you couldn’t even score 11 against 10 for a good half hour. At least Korea actually won when the ref made bad calls in their favour. You guys only think you’re team is good because you beat up on the Oceanic pool for three years, and then get lucky against some fourth place South American team to qualify. At least Korea has to play against tougher competition in qualifying. To hear you cry about that penalty and knock another country cheapens a commendable accomplishment by your boys in Germany, because face it — Australia OVERACHIEVED in this World Cup.

Posted from  Canada

well im not italian im from spain, and italy did get help from the refs too, but they still palyed really hard..im happy for zidane headbutting materazzi…made me feel good

Posted from  United States