By Yesterday’s blow out of North Korea by the Ivory Coast got me thinking if the North Koreans were the worst World Cup team ever and interestingly enough CNNSI recently had an article on this topic and I was surprised to see that South Korea was the team that topped the list:
1. South Korea 1954
Just as with any discussion of the best World Cup teams, top spot on this particular list is a no-brainer. Many sides have been thrashed but South Korea is the only to take a hammering in more than one game at the same tournament. Losing 9-0 to Hungary’s Magnificent Magyars was no disgrace, but a 7-0 defeat to Turkey — who themselves lost 7-2 to West Germany — was much more ignominious. Korea’s captain even played in glasses, a nice image of a team who were far too genteel to mix with the big boys.
This list doesn’t include teams from this year’s World Cup and from looking at the rest of the teams on the list, North Korea should make the Top 10. In fact I think a strong case could be made that the North Koreans be the 2nd ranked team. However, as bad as the North Koreans played this year, they stilled played better than the horrid 1954 South Korean World Cup team.
She hasn’t seen...
10:22 pm on June 25th, 2010 1
In all fairness, the fact they were able to send a team to the World Cup a year after the end of the war is quite an achievement.
12:02 am on June 26th, 2010 2
All of the Asian countries were war ravaged at that time.
2:31 am on June 26th, 2010 3
Yeah, they qualified after having beaten Japan 5-1 in Tokyo. Took most of the team a week to get to Switzerland and they arrived the day before the game against Hungary. Hungary had a great team at the time and beat Germany 8-3 only three days later. Most teams played with five forwards in those days too which helped with the goal-scoring compared to today. The Koreans managed to give a game to all 20 players in their squad over the two matches, in the days before substitutions, which is fair enough if guys were making that journey away from their jobs and families. Most of them were still in the army though so probably glad to get away.
2:45 am on June 26th, 2010 4
2-1 to Brazil anyone?
5:24 am on June 26th, 2010 5
Agreed
4:55 pm on June 26th, 2010 6
I'm amazed SK govt actually had the money to send the team to World cup 1954.
12:56 pm on August 4th, 2010 7
FYI, North Korea ranked 32nd, dead last, in the 2010 World Cup ranking. 32nd out of 32 teams. also, South Korea ranked 15th and Japan 9th.
1:17 pm on August 4th, 2010 8
Archieb wrote:
All of the Asian countries were war ravaged at that time.
China five years off from their war, Japan nine years off, Vietnam still going on, Philippines at least nine years off, etc.
Particularly in a place as thoroughly devastated as South Korea, the difference between one year and just two years is like an eternity, much less five or nine or more years.
4:04 pm on August 4th, 2010 9
On the History Channel in Korea I remember watching a show that talked about the 1954 team. President Rhee asked the USFK Commander for transportation help and the US military provided military aircraft to fly the team to Europe.