Korea looks to end 2017 with sweet win over bitter rival

Korean national men’s football team players train at the West Field of Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo, Friday, a day before their East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Football Championship with Japan. / Yonhap

By John Duerden

Another chapter in one of the world’s biggest football rivalries will be played out on Saturday evening in Tokyo as South Korea takes on Japan in the final game of the 2017 East Asian Championships.

If the Taeguk Warriors want to take the trophy they won in 2015 back to Seoul then they are going to have to win at the Ajinomoto Stadium. The prize is not that important -- few remember who ends up in first place -- but a first win over the Samurai Blue since 2010 would go down well indeed.

Over seven years ago at Saitama Stadium, just to the north of the capital, Korea won 2-0 thanks to goals from Park Ji-sung and Park Chu-young just before both teams jetted off to South Africa and the World Cup. Japan has had the upper hand since.

“The players and coaching staff have all prepared to collect a victory,” coach Shin Tae-yong said Friday. “We are gathered as one unit with a desire to earn a victory.”

With both nations preparing for the 2018 World Cup, Korea will take on Germany, Sweden and Mexico, and without their European-based players, active with their clubs, this tournament is about experimenting and giving new players and formations a try.

Son Heung-min who has been in excellent form of late in the English Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur and Japan’s Shinji Kagawa are just two of the big names who are absent.

As such, it will lack a little of the usual intensity yet both coaches as well as the respective media and fans would be delighted with victory.

“We’re analyzing how Japan head coach Vahid Halilhodzic will use his players,” Shin added. “Our players who are or have played with Japanese clubs are also giving information.”

Korea has four points from the first two games. A 2-2 tie with China was followed by a 1-0 win over North Korea. Japan was fortunate to defeat North Korea by the same score and then went on to defeat China 2-1.

A win would put Korea at the top of the mini-table with seven points while Japan -- tied with Colombia, Poland and Senegal at the World Cup -- needs a single point to keep first and take the trophy.

“We know that South Korea is a strong team,” Japan coach Vahid Halilhodzic said. “It will be a tough game but we are looking forward to the challenge and seeing if we can win the trophy in front of our own fans.”

For Shin the work continues whatever happens. Next month he takes some players, those who can be released by their clubs, to a Middle Eastern training camp. Russia is getting closer.