Korea national football team

The Korea national football team is an team that represents the country of Korea and is organised by the Korea Football Association.

Korea has qualified for two FIFA World Cups with them being knocked out in the group stage on both occasions. They also have participated in two APFC Asian Cups where they took out the 1956 and the 1960 AFC Asian Cup.

Before becoming the national team
History in football can be traced back to the late 19th century with the formation of the Josedon Football Association being formed as part of being under Japanese rule since 1910. The tournament which saw in the first league in Korea as well as the cup tournament only four years later in 1921. By the early 1930s, the formation of a de-facto national team competed in the Japanese Emperor's Cup until the end of the second World War where the formation of the national team would be born.

World Cup appearances and Asian Cup success
The Korea's first appearance at an international competition was the 1948 Summer Olympics in London where they took on in their opening match. Though it would be a short stay despite two goals from, the national team would go down 5-3 to be eliminated. The following year, Korea competed in qualifying for the 1950 FIFA World Cup with the nation competing against, and. For the Koreans, they would finish on top of their group with the support of Kook-chin (3 goals) and (3 goals) to qualify through to their first World Cup.

Korea was placed in Group D with, , and. Against the seeded teams in Yugoslavia and Great Britain, the team struggled as they gave seven and six goals respectively, but it was different against the other two teams in the group. Against the United States, only two late goals in the last ten minutes gave them the defeat despite Kook-Chin scoring the first hat-trick by Asian player at a World Cup. Finally against Romania, they came back from 3-1 down to finish with a three all draw with goals from Kook-Chin and.

Three years later, they once against qualified through to the World Cup after they comfortably finished top of their group before defeating Westrailia in the playoff 6-1. As preparation for the World Cup, Korea entered the Asian Games football tournament where they no issue securing the gold medal with leading the way with six goals for the tournament, four of which came against. Though this success would bite right back as Korea again finished bottom of the group which featured, Romania and the with no goals to show for it.

During the Asian Games tournament, Korea became part of the Asian Football Confederation, with the formation of the AFC Asian Cup occurring two years later. Qualifying for the 1956 AFC Asian Cup saw Korea be in the Eastern zone and they would only need to play the one match with a 5-3 on aggregate win against in the final round. At the tournament which was held in Hong Kong, Korea would win all three of their matches against (4-0),  (2-1) and Westrailia 4-0 to claim the first AFC Asian Cup title.

Though the success would be short-lived with eliminations in the first round of the 1956 Summer Olympics in Buenos Aires to 3-1 which was followed by finishing last in the final round of qualifying for the 1958 FIFA World Cup which included losses to Indonesia both at home and away. Finally they would get knocked out in the quarter-finals of the 1958 Asian Games to South Japan with them conceding a goal in the 113th minute to be eliminated from the tournament. Their next multi-sport tournament was qualifying for the 1960 Summer Olympics. After comfortably defeating 8-0 on aggregate in the opening round, they would go on to lose 5-2 on aggregate to.

The fall in form
Korea than hosted the 1960 AFC Asian Cup with the national team hosting, and Hong Kong. The Koreans would only conceded the one goal throughout the tournament with a 4-1 win over Iran which with the addition of the 4-0 win (over Malaya) and a 2-0 win (over Hong Kong) meant that they took out their second Asian Cup title. The following year, Korea entered into the second round of Asian qualifying for the 1962 FIFA World Cup which was being held in Mexico. After a 1-1 draw against Japan, they would get a 2-0 win over Malaya. This meant that they qualified through to the final round where they took on the, and.

Though their final round qualifying wasn't a good performance as they struggled to kept the lead in four games with three of those matches ending up as draws. The only match that they held the lead and won the match being against Sudan in Seoul where they won 2-0. But these draws wouldn't matter with the second game lost against South Vietnam meant that they wouldn't chase the United Arab Republic in getting that spot. During this time, their best performance was a third place at the 1960 Merdeka Tournament in terms of minor tournaments.

FIFA World Cup
Gold  Silver   Bronze

APFC Asian Cup
Gold  Silver   Bronze