Korean football history

[Holyjoe]

These photos were unashamedly right-clicked from a series of Korean football history articles that the Sports Chosun (I think) ran about a year ago.

First up is a photo of the Joseon FA (the body that eventually evolved into the KFA) from 1942:


This is the South Korean Olympic football squad that traveled to the Summer Olympiad in London in 1948:


In their opening match they defeated Mexico 5-3, and that got them through to the quarter-finals where they lost 12-0 to Sweden. This picture is from that game, which remains the national team's heaviest ever defeat.

[Holyjoe]

This is a team photo of the Military Academy FC, one of the many military sides at the time, from 1954. Most of the competitions then were dominated by military sides and the odd works side.
Marine Corps, Quartermaster Corps, Korean Air Force, Army Special Forces College and Military Police (amongst others) were regular winners of the President's Cup or the Amateur Adult Football Conference during the 1950s.


This is from one of the two matches Korea played against Japan in qualifying for the 1954 Swiss World Cup. Both matches took place in Tokyo, as hostility towards the Japanese was still pretty prevalent in the country and President Syngman Rhee intervened to say that he wouldn't be a happy bunny if Korea failed to qualify. They duly beat Japan 5-1 in the first game and then drew 2-2 a week later to make it to the finals.


This final photo is of Korean player Hong Deok-yong in Switzerland. The Korean team had a terrible time there, arriving only ten hours before their opening match after a 48 hour plane journey, and got trounced 9-0 by Hungary and 7-0 by Turkey.

[Holyjoe]

Dongdaemun Stadium in 1956.
I'm not sure who the opposition was - the KFA website says they played friendlies against the Philippines, Taiwan and the USA Olympic side at Dongdaemun that year.


This is a photo of Choi Jong-min in action for the national team against Hong Kong in the 1956 Asian Cup. This was the first ever tournament and only four teams qualified for the finals - Hong Kong (hosts), South Korea, Israel and South Vietnam. With only four teams they played one group section, and South Korea topped the group to win the tournament with two wins and a draw. They drew 2-2 with Hong Kong in this match.


More pictures later...

[Ed.]

While we're on history, here's former KFA president Yo Un-hyong, who, coincidentally, was the subject of my BA dissertation (Although it wasn't about his time with the KFA).

[Holyjoe]

Ed. said:

While we're on history, here's former KFA president Yo Un-hyong, who, coincidentally, was the subject of my BA dissertation (Although it wasn't about his time with the KFA).

What did he do to inspire a dissertation?


Anyway, as an addendum to the above photos, both of the players specifically named above went on to coach the South Korean national team.
Hong Deok-yong led them for only a month in November 1971 at the Thai King's Cup, and Choi Jong-min was in charge from January-September 1977.

[Holyjoe]

Some more history photos...

This is from a World Cup qualifying playoff match in 1961. Only Japan and Korea ended up entering the Asian qualifying, so the winners of that match would go on to play off against a European side. Korea duly beat the Japanese and went off to face Yugoslavia.
This photo is from one of the ties against Yugoslavia. Korea lost 5-1 in Belgrade and then 3-1 in Seoul.


A wee diversion from South Korean football now, and it's North Korea at the 1966 World Cup.
This first photo shows the North Koreans celebrating after beating Italy 1-0:


This is a photo from North Korea v Portugal at Goodison Park. Most folk know the story - North Korea went 3-0 up in 24 minutes but Eusebio led Portugal into a stunning comeback and the Portugese won 5-3.

[Holyjoe]

This is from the final of the 1971 President's Cup competition in Dongdaemun Stadium against Burma. The first game was drawn 0-0 so it went to a replay and that finished scoreless too, and both sides shared the trophy.


Same competition and same venue one year later, but I don't know for sure who the opposition were. Korea played against Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Burma - I think this photo is from the match against the last-named side in the semi-final which Korea lost 1-0. The Korean player in the picture is Kim Jim-guk.


And of course no football history is complete without the obligatory lots-of-players-with-Pele photo, from 1972. Pele's club side Santos played a friendly against the national team at Dongdaemun Stadium in June that year and won 3-2. Cha Bum-keun is standing beside Pele.

[Ed.]

Holyjoe said:

Possibly could and should have been the leader of a single Korean state after WWII, if the Yanks had backed him instead of Syngman Rhee (It's a long and complicated story, but basically they were afraid he was a commie, and to succeeding generations of Korean students, he was dismissed as such). He was assasinated in broad daylight, at Hyehwa-dong Rotary, within yards of a manned police box (on his way from watching a Korean selection playing an English team, incidentally).

[Holyjoe]

Korea 2-2 Australia, November 1973.
This was a World Cup qualifying playoff at Dongdaemun Stadium. The first leg in Sydney ended 0-0, and as this leg finished 2-2 the game went to a third game in Hong Kong which Australia won 1-0.
(if the Aussie defender on the left hadn't been fiddling around with himself then maybe he might have stopped Korea from scoring...)


This photo is from the 1974 Asian Games tournament in Teheran - Korea didn't do particularly well; they beat Thailand and drew with Iraq, but got hammered by Kuwait as well as losing to Iran and Malaysia. I don't know which game this is from.


Three national team players from 1976 - from left to right, Park Soo-dok, Byon Ho-yong and Kang Ki-wook.


A 1977 World Cup qualifier against Israel at Dongdaemun Stadium. Korea won this game 3-1 thanks to goals from Cha Bum-keun, Park Sang-in and Choi Jong-duk.

[Holyjoe]

Korea 4-1 Japan, June 1979
This was from the annual Korea-Japan fixture. Park Sung-hwa hit a hattrick and Shin Hyun-ho got the other as Korea destroyed their rivals at Dongdaemun Stadium.


1980 Asian Cup semi-final in Kuwait, South Korea defeated North Korea 2-1 to reach the final where they would go on to lose 3-0 to the hosts. Jung Hae-won scored both goals for the South against the North in this match.


This photo was captioned as being from the launch of the K-League in 1983, but I believe it's actually from the 1984 season. The reason for that is the "Daewoo Royals" legend on the giant model of the Daewoo logo - they didn't adopt the "Royals" moniker until the start of 1984.


This is from an Olympic qualifier in Singapore in 1984. South Korea lost 5-4 to Saudi Arabia in this game, and they lost 1-0 in their final group match against Iraq and so didn't qualify. They did beat New Zealand 2-0 earlier in the campaign though

[Holyjoe]

Some more photos from the early 1980s...

This is from a 1983 Pohang K-League match.


Next up, a Championship celebration party for Pohang in 1986. They had a two-stage league that year, and Pohang won the first stage and then promptly finished 2nd bottom in the second stage - they only won six of their 20 league games that season but one of those wins was over Lucky Goldstar in the Championship final so they picked up the title.
I think that dude second from the left with the beard is Brazilian forward È£»þ (not even going to attempt to work that one out...)


Diego Maradona getting a knee in the thigh during Argentina's 3-1 win over Korea at the 1986 World Cup.

[Ed.]

That fine tackle on the Argentinean chappie is being executed by Cho Min-guk, who went on to become head coach of Korea University (Cha Du-ri, Lee Chun-soo etc.), and is currently up to his neck in trouble over "financial irregularities" there.

[Holyjoe]

Time for a few more of these...

Korea go up against Spain in the 1990 World Cup in a game they lost 3-1. Hwang Bo-kwan scored Korea's only goal in the tournament.


North Korean and South Korean players pose before their South-North Unification match at the Neungrado Stadium in Pyeongyang. South Korea lost 2-1.


This is from one of the two 'try outs' held to choose team members for the unified Korean side that would be sent to the 1991 World Youth Championships in Portugal later that year. They reached the quarter-finals after beating Argentina, drawing with Ireland and losing to Portugal in their group. They got thumped 5-1 by Brazil in the quarters.


The squad that went to the games:
Manager: Ahn Se-wook (N)
Coach: Nam Dae-sik (S)
Players: Choi Ik-hyung (S), Kim Jung-sun (N), Jung Kang-sung (N), Park Chul (S), Kang Chul (S), Noh Tae-kyung (S), Jung Hyun-ho (S), Lee Im-saeng (S), Kim Jung-man (N), Jo Jin-ho (S), Han Yun-chul (S), Choi Young-sun (N), Seo Dong-won (S), Yoon Chul (N), Ri Chang-ha (N), Choi Chul (N), Jo In-chul (N), Lee Tae-hong (S)

[redneck13]

Beautiful thread.

[teppic]

good stuff.