05/20(Mon) 20:15

First Ever England-Korea Match takes Shape

The "Head Family of Soccer" England and "World Cup Host" Korea, who until now, have never played against each other will meet on May 21 at 7:00pm at the World Cup Stadium in Seoguipo, Jeju. Coach Gus Hiddink plans to prove that the six games won in recent warm-up games were not flukes and says, "England plays 'orthodox' European soccer. This warm-up match will be a very good experience for our players since we have to play with two European teams in the preliminaries. The English team has many injured main players but they are planning to keep their pride." Coach Sven Eriksson says, ¡°The domestic league just ended last May 11, so the national team has been summoned for only a short time. We don¡¯t have time to dawdle.¡± Both teams are worried about sudden injuries but are not going to permit loose playing.

On Monday, Hiddink said, ¡°The members of the England match are different from those of Scotland,¡± hinting that there will be changes in players; especially up front where an aggressive change is possible. Seol Ki-hyun, Choi Yong-su, and Cha Du-ri were one group in strategic training and received special training from the coach and it is likely that they will start off the game. If their great strength and speed is not enough, Coach Hiddink plans to put in Ahn Jung-hwan, Yoon Jung-hwan and Lee Cheon-su as play makers. Yoo Sang-cheol and Kim Nam-il will keep mid-field and if Cha Du-ri is placed as right offense, Choi Sung-yong, who has great defense skills, or Song Jong-guk will probably take charge of right hand mid-field. With defender Lee Min-sung's injury, interest lies in whether Shim Jae-won will play. However, if Hong Myung-bo, Choi Jin-cheol, and Shim Jae-won play, it will not be easy to block 100m in 10second sprinters Owen or Heskey.

Eriksson says, "We have many young players. This warm-up match will be an opportunity for them to build experience." Therefore, in the match with Korea, England is expected to test out its new faces in the places of its injured aces. England has five injured players including captain David Beckham. In order to reinforce their mid-field, England called up Trevor Sinclair (West Ham) who was not included in the World Cup squad. England¡¯s top midfielder, Paul Scholes, along with Joe Call and Danny Murphy are expected to take position for the match against Korea. In the traditional 4-4-2 strategy, Michael Owen and Emile Heskey are likely to play, but there are also possibilities of other players due to the need to prevent of injury to Owen. In the defense will probably be 1.9m Rio Ferdinand and Eriksson¡¯s favorite, Ashley Call.

(From Jeju, Kang Ho-chul, jdean@chosun.com)