Top Of Asia
In 1954 the Korea Football Association became a member of the Asian Football Confederation, and in 1956 entered the qualifying stages for the first Asian Cup competition. The Koreans qualified easily and eventually won the inaugural tournament, remaining undefeated in their four matches against Taiwan, Hong Kong, Israel and South Vietnam.
Just as they had done in 1954, the Koreans again finished runners-up to Taiwan in the 1958 Asian games, losing out 3-2 in the final of the competition held in Tokyo. However, the following year Korea won the Asian Youth Championship held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
All of this was in preparation ahead of Korea's hosting of the 2nd Asian Cup tournament in 1960. The Koreans, playing all their matches in Seoul, defeated South Vietnam 5-1, Israel 3-0 and Taiwan 1-0 to retain the trophy won four years previously in Japan. Korea also retained the Asian Youth Championship title to establish themselves as a major footballing force within Asia.
Japan stood in Korea's way of a two-legged play off against European opponents for qualification to the 1962 World Cup. Korea won the home match 2-1 in November 1960 thanks to two goals from Chung Soon-chun, but then had to wait seven months until the summer of 1961 to play the second leg where they triumphed 2-0 in Tokyo, with Chung Soon-chun opening the scoring and Yoo Pan-soon adding a second, to set themselves up in a play-off with Yugoslavia, who had lost out to the Soviet Union in the final of the inaugural European Championship the previous year. The cultured and experienced Europeans swept Korea away in the first leg in Belgrade running out 5-1 victors, and recorded a 3-1 win in Seoul a month later to book their place in Chile at the expense of the Koreans. The Yugoslavians would go on to finish fourth at the tournament, losing out to Czechoslovakia in the semifinals and then falling 1-0 to hosts Chile in the third place match.
Korea finished silver-medal winners again in the Asian Games in 1962, however focus had shifted to qualifying for and performing admirably in the 1964 Summer Olympiad, to be held in Tokyo. Korea sacrificed the chance to retain the Asian Cup for the 3rd year in a row by sending a second string team to the tournament, where they lost out in the final to hosts Israel. The top team was entrusted with the task of ensuring qualification to the Tokyo Olympics, and that was duly achieved at the expense of Taiwan and South Vietnam. The Korean football team, eager to impress in their first Olympic Games tournament since their debut in London, had a nightmare time in the games hosted by their former colonizers, registering only one goal with twenty conceded in their three matches against Czechoslovakia, Brazil and the United Arab Republic. Lee Yi-woo was the only Korean scorer, netting in the second half of the opening match against the Czechs.
