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[Awards Review]
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▶ Turkey to Provide Korea With World Cup Litmus Test
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[2002/03/26 ]
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Seoul, March 26 (Yonhap) -- Korea's chances of making it to the last 16 of this year's FIFA World Cup finals will be put to the test this week in a friendly match with Turkey, soccer pundits predicted Tuesday.
The match, scheduled to be held at the Ruhr Stadium in Bochum, Germany early Wednesday morning (Korean time), is expected to be one of the toughest tests of the Korean side under Guus Hiddink's tenure. It is also being viewed as a barometer of Korea's progress over the team's 23-day long European training tour.
Since Korea and Turkey are using the game as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup competition, both teams are expected to field their first-choice players in the starting 11.
Experts highlight Parma's Hakan Sukur, the driving force of Turkey's attack, and Besiktas' Ilhan Mansiz as the main threats to the Korean defense of Hong Myung-bo, Kim Tae-young and Choi Jin-chul.
While last week's 2-0 victory over Finland brought a measure of success for Korea's struggling forward line, J-League strikers Hwang Sun-hong and Choi Yong-soo as well as Cerezo Osaka's offensive midfielder Yoon Jong-hwan are likely to find it more difficult to break down an extremely organized Turkish defense.
Experts say it will also be interesting to see whether Hiddink's focus on physical conditioning will stand the test presented by the aggressive Turks.
Hiddink is expected to put Lee Young-pyo, Song Chong-gug and Kim Nam-il into the midfield while Kim Byung-ji is expected to start in goal.
A victory over Turkey would provide the Korean players with a much-needed confidence booster after a string of disappointing results this year. It will also go a long way to breaking the 'jinx' European teams hold over Korea.
The nation's past record against Turkey is poor to say the least, playing and losing twice and conceding eight goals without reply. Hiddink's personal record against the Turks is also disappointing with his powerful Dutch team losing once and drawing once in 1998 World Cup finals.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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