World Cup ’94 : WORLD CUP USA ’94 / GROUP C PREVIEW : South Korea at a Glance

* COACH: Kim Ho.

* KEY PLAYERS: Hwang Sun-nong, Kim Joo-sung, Choi In-young.

* STRENGTHS: The offense boasts above-average speed, determination and a fair amount of technical skill. Midfielder Kim Joo-sung played on the 1986 and 1990 World Cup teams and has twice been named Asia’s player of the year. Seo Jung-won, another midfielder, is one of the fastest players in the tournament.

* WEAKNESSES: Youth, lack of international experience and a lack of self-confidence are the main difficulties the Koreans have to overcome. Their defense is somewhat naive and not as tenacious as it should be once beaten. The team’s sometimes overly enthusiastic, not to say rough play could result in problems with referees.

* WORLD CUP HISTORY: Three previous appearances. Record of 0-7-1. Never advanced beyond the first round.

* LITTLE-KNOWN FACT: South Korea’s technical adviser, Anatoli Byshovets, coached the Soviet Union’s gold medal-winning side in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

* OUTLOOK: South Korea will have good fan support in Dallas and is talented enough to score its first World Cup victory by defeating Bolivia and thereby possibly reaching the second round.

* PREDICTED FIRST-ROUND FINISH: Third.

ROSTER

No. Name Position 1 Choi In-young Goalkeeper 21 Park Chul-woo Goalkeeper 22 Lee Woon-jae Goalkeeper 2 Chung John-son Defender 3 Lee Jong-hwa Defender 4 Kim Pan-keun Defender 5 Park Jung-bae Defender 6 Lee Young-sang Defender 7 Shin Hong-gi Defender 12 Choi Young-il Defender 13 An Ik-soo Defender 17 Gu Sang-bum Defender 20 Hong Myung-bo Defender 8 Noh Jung-yoon Midfielder 9 Kim Joo-sung Midfielder 10 Ko Jeoung-woon Midfielder 11 Seo Jung-won Midfielder 14 Choi Dae-sik Midfielder 15 Cho Jim-so Midfielder 19 Choi Moon-sik Midfielder 16 Ha Seok-ju Forward 18 Hwang Sun-nong Forward