By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
South Korea's under-23 football team will look to Park Chu-young and Shin Young-rok as its two tops in a must-win match against Uzbekistan in the final qualifying round for the Beijing Olympics.
The match will be held at 7 p.m. (Korea Standard Time) Saturday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The young Korean squad, which was slowed by a scoreless draw with Syria last month, needs to win to extend its lead in the qualifying group against a surging team from Bahrain. While the Koreans lead Group B with 10 points, Bahrain is just one point behind. Only the top teams from Groups A, B and C will secure tickets to Beijing.
With two games remaining, the Korean team, seeking a sixth straight Olympic berth, sees itself in a position where an unexpected loss could crush its Olympic hopes.
Korean manager Park Sung-wha, who has led the team since the final qualifying round after Pim Verbeek's sudden resignation in July, has selected Shin, a Suwon BlueWings attacker, as the partner for striker Park, a 22-year-old who was once dubbed a football phenom but missed significant time with a foot injury before returning in the Syria match.
Shin becomes the latest player to be paired with Park, after testing Shin in a previous match and Ulsan Tigers midfielder Lee Sang-ho at the position, hoping they could end the team's goal drought. The Taegeuk warriors have produced only four goals in as many games in the qualifying final round.
Manager Park, 52, plans to field Park Chu-young behind Shin because he has shown better movements than being pinned on the forefront.
Park and Shin have each had signature performances against the Eastern European country of Uzbekistan. Park, who plays for FC Seoul in the K-League, made his international debut against the Uzbeks in the 2006 World Cup final qualifying round and equalized it to a 1-1 draw. Shin, 20, flicked an overtime winner in a quarterfinal game at the AFC's U-19 Championship in 2004 in Malaysia.
Lee and Kim Seung-yong, who have a goal apiece in the final round, are expected to be on the ground in the second half.
Midfielders Lee Keun-ho of Daegu FC and Lee Chung-yong of FC Seoul will be positioned on the wings. Keun-ho, 22, is the leading scorer on the team with three goals through the second and final qualifying rounds, while Chung-yong had a slight injury on his right thigh but is expected to start.
The other two midfield spots go to Ki Sung-yueng of FC Seoul and Oh Jang-eun of the Ulsan Tigers.
Kim Chang-soo of Daejeon Citizen, Kim Jin-kyu of FC Seoul, Kang Min-soo of the Chunnam Dragons and Shin Kwang-hoon of the Pohang Steelers compose a four-back line.
South Korea has dominated Uzbekistan 3-0 in the Olympic qualifiers ― two wins in the second and one in the final rounds.