Japan, Korea set for East Asian Champs

From: USA Today | Feb. 05, 2010
By: Jim Armstrong, AP Sports Writer

TOKYO — Japan and South Korea's domestic players will have a chance to push their World Cup selection hopes when the East Asian Championship begins here Saturday.

The Feb. 6-14 tournament is a chance for Japan coach Takeshi Okada and South Korean coach Huh Jung-moo to decide which domestic-based players will make their respective squads in South Africa for the World Cup finals.

China and Hong Kong are the other two competing nations.

"The tournament is a chance for the players to take their game up another level," Okada said on the Japan Football Association Web site. "We'll make an assessment after the first two games against China and Hong Kong and have our best team for South Korea."

Japan has been drawn in Group E against Cameroon, Denmark and the Netherlands at the World Cup finals while the Koreans are in Group B with Argentina, Nigeria and Greece.

Okada will be especially eager to see if Kashima Antlers midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara can contribute after a long international absence. Ogasawara had Japan's best scoring chance in a 0-0 draw with Venezuela on Tuesday and drew praise from Okada for his aggressiveness.

Sota Hirayama, who came on in the second half and had several good chances against the South Americans, will also be looking to impress Okada.

Japan opens the tournament on Saturday against China, and will then play Hong Kong but the real test for Okada's side will be Feb. 14 when they face the Koreans.

South Korea is coming off a trip to South Africa and Spain where they lost to Zambia before wins over Finland and Latvia.

During training overseas, Huh tried out several players, including Lee Dong-gook and No Byung-jun, in a forward role but the results were inconclusive. Lee was the 2009 K-League top scorer but has struggled to find his scoring touch with the national team.

South Korea's opening game on Sunday is against Hong Kong.

China coach Gao Hongbo will be hoping a strong performance in Tokyo will reinvigorate a side which seems to have fallen further behind Japan and South Korea.

Hong Kong qualified for the tournament by finishing first in a competition in Taiwan last year. It went through at the expense of North Korea, costing the World Cup-bound team a prime chance to get some much-needed preparation.

More than any of the 32 World Cup participants, North Korea is looking for meaningful international competition but the team is struggling to arrange matches.

Since qualifying, North Korea has faced just Zambia, Congo, Mali, Iran and Qatar in international friendlies. So disappointed was the North Korean Football Association at the failure to book a berth at the East Asian Championship that the future of coach Kim Jong Hoon was questioned despite the team's impressive World Cup qualification.

Stories in the western media in October suggested that former England coach Sven Goran Eriksson was in talks to discuss the role.

Kim remains in the hot seat but has much work to do before the World Cup. After February games with the likes of India and Tajikistan, North Korea just has a March match against Chile lined up.

Not only does the team need the practice, winning the four-nation round-robin tournament nets the winner $500,000.