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Of all the national football sides in Asia, the Korea Republic
national football team is acknowledged to be the most successful.
Since the squad made its debut in the 1948 Summer Olympics, it has gone
from strength to strength and evolved into a worthy international
football team. In 1933, the Joseon Football Association was launched as
Korea's first football governing body. However, after Korea was split
into North and South Korea in 1948, the Korea Football Association
(KFA) was founded in South Korea, which became a member of FIFA the
same year.
Since then, the Korea Republic national football team has qualified for
eight FIFA World Cup tournaments, including the 2010 World Cup in South
Africa. It is the only Asian national football squad to qualify for the
World Cup seven consecutive times, and currently boasts the best record
in FIFA of any Asian team. In fact, when it came to qualifying for the
2010 World Cup, the South Korea national football team was the only
undefeated Asian team and qualified with ease.
But this wasn't always the case. In its first ever World Cup in 1954,
South
Korea lost badly to Hungary and Turkey (0-9 and 0-7 respectively) due
to a lack of international experience. However, when the nation made
its next World Cup bid in Mexico City in 1986, it showed great
improvement, losing 3-1 to Argentina, drawing 1-1 with Bulgaria and
losing 3-2 to Italy. In the following three World Cups, the Korea
Republic national football team made it to Round 1. In the 2002 World
Cup it finished an impressive fourth and in 2006 it reached Round 1.
From 2007 until now, Huh Jung-Moo has been the head coach of the
national team.
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