Showdown

It will be an intense game. Dubbed as a ‘battle between David and Goliath’, the Group G Korea-France game in the 2006 Germany World Cup will be held at 4:00 a.m. on June 19 (Korean time) at the Central Stadium in Leipzig.

Among the players, France has twelve players from the ‘four big leagues’ including the Premier League (England) and Primera Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), and Bundesliga (Germany), while Korea only has three players: Park Ji-sung (Manchester United), Lee Young-pyo (Tottenham Hotsper), and Ahn Jung-hwan (Duisburg). The FIFA ranking of Korea (29th) is also much lower than France’s (8th). Objective views project Korea to be of a lesser rank than France, but the ball is round, and nobody knows what might happen at a World Cup event.

Korea’s head coach Dick Advocaat, who wants to clinch the ticket to the next rounds with two consecutive wins, displayed his confidence by saying that “with enough pressure, we can win over France. The important thing is not the popularity of the players but the results.” French coach Raymond Domenech, who may face the possibility of two consecutive failures to go to the next rounds should France lose this match, said, “We have no alternatives but to win the match with Korea. We will go all in for the match.”

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