Stats from South Korea’s six previous World Cups

With the Republic of Korea qualifying for its seventh-straight World Cup and ready to head to South Africa in less than a year, it’s time to review the past six World Cups.

How’d the team do??

Besides Korea’s unexpected fantastic fourth-place finish in front of the home-country crowd in 2002, it’s had a string of first-round exits, starting in 1986 in Mexico.

Year Round Host country Games played
1986 Round 1 Mexico 2
1990 Round 1 Italy 3
1994 Round 1 United States 3
1998 Round 1 France 3
2002 4th place South Korea/Japan 7
2006 Round 1 Germany 3

Korea first played in the World Cup in the 1954 competition held in Switzerland just one year after the completion of the Korean War. Like the majority of Korea’s appearances, they were knocked out in the first round (including playing in a game where they were decimated 9-0 by Hungary).

It was a 32-year drought until the team qualified again, including its non-qualification in the 1966 World Cup in England (South Korea withdrew because the qualifying tournament was moved to Cambodia from Japan). That was the last time North Korea qualified for the World Cup.

A quick history of North Korea’s World Cup appearances coming soon…