By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
Pim Verbeek is finally letting one-time prodigy forward Park Chu-young of FC Seoul play as a member of the Olympic squad.
Park, 21, left off the roster for the national football team, was picked up for the under-23 and 21-member Olympic team.
Park was suspended for three games after he was sent off for violence during the Feb. 28 Yemen match.
The young South Koreans will face the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on June 6 in the final preliminary match of the second round for the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
The Dutch coach, who also heads the South Korean national team, plans to test Park through the game.
If Park lives up to his coach's expectation, the possibility of him joining the national team for the Asian Cup, where he has never played, will be heightened.
The Asian Cup will be held from July 7 to 29 in Malaysia, India, Vietnam and Thailand and the South Korean team will play against Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Indonesia in the preliminary matches.
Along with Park, Verbeek has chosen six forwards _ Yang Dong-hyen of Ulsan Tigers, Sim Woo-yeon of FC Seoul, Lee Keun-ho of Daegu FC, Seo Dong-hyeon of Suwon BlueWings, Baek Seung-min of Chunnam Dragons and Kim Min-ho of Seongnam Chunma.
BlueWings midfielder Baek Ji-hoon and goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong, were also selected for the Olympic team. Paek missed a May 16 Yemen game due to yellow card accumulation while Jung has recently recovered from an injury.
Only university player Kim Chang-hoon of Korea University, who played against Yemen two weeks ago, survived to play on the team but Ulsan Tigers midfielder Oh Jang-eun was excluded from the roster due to an injury.
As South Korea has already clinched the berth to the final round of the Olympic qualifiers, Verbeek plans to test young players in the UAE match regardless of the outcome as he did in the Yemen match, where Korea suffered a 0-1 defeat.
The 21-members will gather in Daejeon on June 3.