South Korea World Cup Betting Preview

South Korea odds and free bets for 2010 World Cup

South Korea hosted the World Cup back in 2002 and famously did extremely well, knocking out both Italy and Spain on their way to the semi finals, before losing to runners up Germany 1-0. They then faced Turkey in a third place playoff as well, but lost and therefore finished 4th, which was still the best result in the country’s history. In fact, it still remains the only time South Korea have progressed past the group stages of a World Cup.

In the final round of Asian qualifying for the World Cup, South Korea were drawn in a group alongside Korea DPR, Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE. South Korea ran away with the group, remaining undefeated in a tricky group (won 4, drawn 4) and thus qualified for the 2010 World Cup; their seventh consecutive tournament.

South Korea’s top scorers during the qualification process were Monaco striker Park Chu-Young who scored a total of 4 goals and Man Utd midfielder Park Ji-Sung who scored 5. Park Ji-Sung is the undoubted star man and talisman of the team. He has 84 caps for his country and is also the national team’s captain. Park is the only South Korean player ever to win the Champions League, having won in with Manchester United and was always incredibly influential in PSV Eindhoven’s run the semi finals of the competition in 2005.

South Korea have a difficult group at the 2010 World Cup, with Argentina, Nigeria and Greece forming their competition. Although they will definitely be attempting to finish 2nd in the group, they are certainly not favourites. They have never progressed from a World Cup group outside of their home nation and Nigeria and Greece will create some stiff opposition for the runners up spot this time round. The best available odds on South Korea to not qualify are 2/9, which shows the mountainous task they face in trying to qualify. The odds on them to qualify are 7/2 and to win the group they are priced as outsiders as 12/1. South Korea will probably realistically finish either 3rd or 4th in the group. They are priced at 24/13 to finish 3rd and 6/5 to finish 4th. Judging purely on their record at previous World Cups, South Korea aren’t likely to have much success in South Africa and as such, the safest bet is probably to go for them to finish 4th in the group.

Reccomended bets: South Korea to finish 4th in their group (6/5 with expekt.com)

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