World Cup
Preparation began in earnest all for countries all around the world as the World Cup tournament came along again. For the Koreans, it was no different. Hiddink arranged a series of friendlies against non-Asian opposition in order to test out his squad more thoroughly. Wins against Finland and Costa Rica provided small glimmers of hope, moreso than the draws with Turkey, Tunisia and China, or indeed the disappointing defeat to Uruguay. In the final month before the World Cup, Korea played three matches against three well-known European sides, hammering Scotland 4-1, drawing 1-1 with England and narrowly losing 3-2 to World Champions France. The progress was evident, from a 5-0 drubbing by the French in Daegu to a narrow 3-2 defeat in Suwon in the space of one year. The Koreans were quietly confident of achieving a moderate level of success at the World Cup.
Korea laid on a spectacular opening ceremony show at the Seoul World Cup stadium, and that was followed up by an even more spectacular match as France, a nation involved in the very first opening match of a World Cup tournament back in 1930, fell 1-0 to unfancied Africans Senegal. The tournament continued to provide shocks, and it was in Busan, the city where Korea played all their 1988 Olympics matches, that they recorded their first ever World Cup finals win, defeating Poland 2-0 through goals from Hwang Sun-hong and Yoo Sang-chul. Ahn Jung-hwan rescued a point against USA in their second group match, and Korea found themselves in a tricky position to qualify from their group for the first time ever. Portugal, by virtue of a much better goal difference, needed only a point to put themselves above Korea, and the USA were widely fancied to beat Poland. If both scenarios were to transpire, then Korea would crash out of their own World Cup. As it turned out, it was Portugal who would crash out, going down 1-0 in Incheon to a Park Ji-sung goal as Poland crushed USA. Far from failing to qualify, Korea had actually won their World Cup group.
The second round paired Korea with European giants Italy, and after an early Korean penalty miss the Italians went 1-0 up. Seol Ki-hyeon rescued the tie two minutes from time and sent it into extra-time when Ahn Jung-hwan scored the golden goal three minutes before the match was due to go to penalties. Just as in 1966, the Italians had been eliminated by a Korean side. Earlier that same day, the Japanese had been beaten by Turkey to complete a very happy day for Korea.
Gwangju was the venue for the quarterfinal tie against Spain, which, after finishing 0-0 at the end of extra time went to a nailbiting penalty shootout. Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae pulled off a superb save from Joaquin's penalty with the score at 4-3, and captain Hong Myung-bo calmly slotted home the winning penalty.
For the second tournament in a row, Guus Hiddink led a team out into the World Cup semifinals. This time, his Korean side would be facing the skilled and methodical Germans at the Seoul World Cup stadium. Michael Ballack, despite having picked up a yellow card four minutes previously that rendered him ineligible to appear in the World Cup final, struck the winning goal for the Germans in the 75th minute of the match and it would be them, not Korea, lining up against Brazil in the Yokohama International Stadium for the 2002 World Cup final. Instead, Korea went into the third place match against Turkey, where they conceded the fastest ever World Cup tournament goal, falling behind to Hakan Sukur's only strike of the tournament. Goals from Lee Eul-yong and Song Chong-gug saw Korea eventually lose out 3-2 to the Turks, and to claim fourth place overall.
The World Cup stars returned in the K-League to hero welcomes. Attendances increased as everyone around the country turned out to see the players who brought such glory to the country ply their trade in the Korean football league. Ulsan, Daejeon, Suwon and Chonbuk moved into four of the ten vacant World Cup stadiums around the country, as the K-League announced ambitious plans to create extra teams to fill the remaining empty stadia. The move to the World Cup stadium didn't greatly benefit Daejeon, who finished bottom for the second year in a row. Conversely, Ulsan's move had the opposite effect, as they battled right down until the final day of the season for the championship. In the end, Seongnam, the only K-League club not to have a player involved in the Korean World Cup squad, took the title for the second year in a row.
Guus Hiddink left the Korean national job after his contract expired at the end of the 2002 World Cup, and returned to manage PSV Eindhoven in Holland. Hiddink took on a part-time consultancy role with the KFA, but was no longer involved with coaching the team. The KFA swiftly elevated Hiddink's assistant Park Hang-seo to the national side, but he remained in charge for only two months. Numerous problems materialized between the new man and the KFA bosses, not least Park Hang-seo's anger at Guus Hiddink's unannounced appearance on the Korean bench for the South Korea v North Korea match at the Seoul World Cup stadium in September that year, which ended in a 0-0 draw.
Again the KFA searched for the foreign influence, and in early 2003 appointed Portuguese coach Humberto Coelho, who led Portugal to the semifinals of the 2000 European Championship.
