“Trusting in Song Jong-Kuk”

"Breaking through South America’s best defense, Uruguay, with playmaker Song Jong-Kuk and two-top Kim Do-Hun – Lee Dong-Kuk."

A friendly match between Korea and Uruguay will be held at 9 a.m. on the 14th in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The Korean national soccer team, which was reorganized as Lee Yim-Saeng (Buchon) and Shim Jae-Won (Frankfurt) joined after a disappointing record of 1 victory, 1 tie, 3 defeats (3 goals won, 7 goals lost) in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, will reassess its strength against a South American power team, Uruguay.

Both Korea and Uruguay will only have half of its major players, with most of the starting members excluded. However, it will be a good opportunity for Korea to examine its restless offense line, because all the starting members on the Uruguay`s defense line will participate.

Uruguay displayed an impressive defense in the South American regional preliminaries of the 2002 World Cup, allowing only 14 goals in 20 matches. The main axis of Tais, Lembo, Sorondo, and D Rodriguez will hold the formation in the friendly match with Korea.

The Korean team`s head coach, Guus Hiddink, made a move of positioning Song Jong-Kuk as the playmaker and Kim Do-Hun – Lee Dong-Kuk as the two-top players in order to resolve the problem iin goal decisiveness and simple offense strategies.

It is an especially epoch-making decision to assign Song Jong-Kuk, who was formerly in the central defense, midfield, and right-side offense as the playmaker. Hiddink has used Lee Chun-Su, Park Ji-Sung, and Choi Tae-Wook as playmakers so far but gained no satisfactory results. That is why he is counting on Song this time for his good strength and shooting power.

Lee Dong-Kuk, who has been quiet because of his right ankle injury, and Kim Do-Hun, who is recently going through a serious slump, are seeking a way out of their slump.

Korea is not going to have an easy game. Although some of Uruguay’s European leaguers are excluded, the defense line will be powerful with all its major players. Besides, Richard Morales, who scored 5 goals in the past 4 games, and 1 meter 96-tall Sebastian Abreu will be there to attack Korea.

Hiddink said, "Uruguay is a very strong team that won the World Cup championship twice, and it’s especially strong on the home ground. But we are determined to win to clear up the disappointment at the Gold Cup."

stt77@donga.com