Advocaat Announces World Cup Roster

“I think the team is better than what it was in 2002. We worked hard to maintain the balance between offense and defense. This team will surely make the final 16,” said Dick Advocaat at a press conference held in the Grand Hilton Seoul on May 11. The purpose of the press conference was to finally announce the names of the 23 players on the active roster, along with five reserve players, who will be attending the 2006 Germany World Cup.

The Korean national soccer team will submit its final roster to FIFA by May 15. Should there be a serious injury to an active player whose name has been submitted, the team is allowed to replace that player with someone from the reserve list until 24 hours before its first match against Togo on June 13. Advocaat said he contemplated hard and long on maintaining the team’s balance between offense and defense because most Korean players have offensive tendencies.

The Korean national team members will be summoned for training at the national team training center located in Paju City. The team will fly to Scotland on May 27 and have an evaluation match with Norway and with Ghana on June 1 and 2, respectively. Arriving in Germany on June 6, Team Korea will play its first World Cup match against Togo on June 13.

Won-Hong Lee Jae-Yun Jung bluesky@donga.com jaeyuna@donga.com