Relocations
The KFA long held a desire to operate a K-League team in the Seoul Sang-am World Cup stadium, but lacked the resources to get one off the ground. Potential corporate investors were hard to come by. There had been plans for K2 side Seoul City Hall to move up to the K-League, and negotiations had taken place with numerous Korean corporations over taking over the running of the club, however the talks broke down and the Seoul city government pulled the plug on their sponsorship and support of the side and the club, which had previously been founded in 1976, was wound up on the last day of 2003.
The KFA invited applications from clubs to either relocate or establish themselves in the Seoul stadium. Anyang LG Cheetahs and Busan I'cons both applied to make the switch, with Busan withdrawing their application the day before the vote was made. So Anyang LG Cheetahs, much to the disgust of local supporters who had followed the team so well the previous nine years since the LG Cheetahs moved from the Dongdaemun Stadium, uprooted themselves to Seoul and were renamed FC Seoul.
Coehlo's reign as national coach came to an end just two games into the qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup. After opening with a 2-0 victory over Lebanon, Korea stuttered to a goalless draw with tiny island side the Maldives and the Portugese coach departed not long after.
The search for a replacement was a protracted affair with the KFA missing out on several top targets before eventually plumping for Dutchman Johannes Bonfrere on the eve of the Asian Cup tournament.
The lack of preparation time under the new coach came back to haunt Korea as they exited 4-3 at the quarter-final stage in an end-to-end match against Iran. At the same time the Korean Olympic team reached the quarter-finals of the Athens games tournament before bowing out 3-2 to Paraguay.
It was all-change on the domestic front too, with several big name former national team players returning to coaching roles. Lee Jang-soo moved in at Chunnam and Cha Bum-keun took over from the retiring Kim Ho at Suwon. 2004 was to be much more successful for the latter as his Bluewings side lifted their third K-League title with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out victory in the playoff final against Pohang Steelers. Defending champions Seongnam struggled to make any impact in the regular league season but won the mid-season League Cup competition and also reached the final of the Asian Champions League. A 3-1 away victory in the first leg looked to have given them a comfortable cushion in the return game but they crashed to a 5-0 defeat, the club's heaviest ever loss, and the trophy went to Al-Ittihad.
Suwon began the 2005 season with the capture of several of Korean football's biggest names, adding the likes of Kim Nam-il and Song Chong-guk to their squad in an attempt to consolidate their position at the top of the Korean game and make a name for themselves as one of Asia's premier clubs. They lifted the A3 Champions Cup and the Hauzen Cup in quick succession, but found defending their league title a little harder as Busan I'Park and Incheon United set the pace during the season.
Despite a number of shaky performances, Bonfrere secured the national team's passage to the 2006 World Cup with a 4-0 win over Kuwait in the penultimate qualifying match. Korea hosted the second edition of the East Asian Cup and as holders were expected to put up a much better showing than they actually did, drawing with China and North Korea as well as losing to Japan. A limp 1-0 home defeat to Saudi Arabia in the final World Cup qualifier spelled the end for Bonfrere as coach amid mounting media and fan pressure, and he tendered his resignation little over a week later.
The search for Bonfrere's replacement again led the KFA to Holland where they appointed former Dutch national team coach Dick Advocaat to the position. The Dutchman brought 2002 World Cup staff members Pim Verbeek and Afshin Ghotbi back to Korea with him.
The 2005 K-League season ended with Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i celebrating only their second championship in their history, having gunned down Incheon United 6-3 on aggregate in the championship final play-off. K2 League side Ulsan Mipo Dockyard surprised everyone by reaching the final of the FA Cup tournament but their run was ended at the final hurdle by Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors who collected the trophy for the third time in six years.
Advocaat became the first national team manager to lead Korea to victory at a World Cup finals match on foreign soil as Korea won their opening match 2-1 against Togo in Germany. Despite a credible 1-1 draw with France in the second match, a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Switzerland ended Korea's involvement in the 2006 tournament.
