Seoul, July 29 (BUS): The Asian football rivalry has begun unlike any other one-sided competition, according to the Associated Press.
South Korea defeated Japan 42 times and lost only 16 matches. But Japan have won their last two games against regional opponents 3-0 in the past 18 months, including this week’s match in Japan.
When Japan debuted at the 1998 World Cup, South Korea was playing in their fifth tournament.
The South Koreans reached the semi-finals in 2002 when the two countries co-hosted the tournament and it is still the best performance of any Asian team at the World Cup Finals.
But in 2018, Japan advanced to the playoffs while South Korea failed to advance from team play.
In March 2021, Japan defeated its rival 3-0 in Yokohama and repeated the feat at Toyota on Wednesday in the East Asian Championship, clearly outperforming in both matches. And it’s not just the first team – a June meeting at the Asian U-23 Championship saw Japan win 3-0 again.
The Japanese media was not too excited about the victory, which gave the host nation seven points and first place in the East Asian Championships, which featured China and Hong Kong.
South Korea coach Paulo Bento said the defeat was caused by defensive errors and preferred not to talk about the rivalry between the two teams.
However, comparisons are inevitable between the two most successful countries in Asia for football. With both teams missing stars from Europe, Wednesday’s meeting was largely between players from the J-League and the K-League. Japan, which featured a less experienced team, comfortably won.
Although South Korea boasts Asia’s biggest star Son Heung-min, who won the Premier League Golden Boot as top scorer with Tottenham Hotspur last season, Japan can name an entire roster full of professional players in Europe.
Domestically, the J-League is on the rise with attendance before the outbreak of the epidemic reached 20,751 in 2019, more than double that of its counterpart in South Korea.
Regardless of recent results and low attendance, South Korean defender Kim Jin-soo is confident that Asia’s most successful team at the World Cup will be able to turn things around before the World Cup kicks off in Qatar in November.
Japan plays in Group E with Germany, Costa Rica and Spain. South Korea is in Group H with Uruguay, Ghana and Portugal.
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