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Navas. What a goal. And he's not even a starter for Spain. This is not fair

Xavi, Xabi, Villa, and Pedro on. Scared shitless.

Another epic fail finish just now I love him but he's really not a goalscorer.

WTF brilliant saves by Reina

not really getting a sniff, but that's to be expected I suppose. Defending well enough. Spain not doing much other than give it to Navas who hoofs it up to Llorente.

Well, we're certainly making a game out of it.

Spain is a B team, we're full strength minus Jisung Park. I'm starting to realize that Iniesta is secretly a dirty bastard, by the way.

South Korea v. Spain kicking off ...please keep it respectable.

http://imgnews.naver.com/image/073/2010/06/03/100603_4c0718b884379.jpg Local press linking us, Fulham, Palermo, and a few Spanish teams to South Korean central defender Cho Yong-Hyung. Well, he'll be our first choice CB at the World Cup... But that's not saying much.

http://img.khan.co.kr/news/2010/04/30/20100430000636_r.jpg The South Korea 23. GK: Lee Woon-Jae (Suwon Bluewings), Kim Young-Kwang (Ulsan Horang-i), Jung Sung-Ryong (Seongnam Ilhwa) DF: Lee Young-Pyo (Al-Hilal), Cha Du-Ri (SC Freiburg), Kim Dong-Jin (Ulsan Horang-i), Oh Beom-Seok (Ulsan Horang-i), Kang Min-Soo (Suwon Bluewings), Cho Yong-Hyung (Jeju United), Lee Jung-Soo (Kashima Antlers), Kim Hyung-Il (Pohang Steelers) MF: Kim Nam-Il (Tom Tomsk), Park Ji-Sung (Manchester United), Kim Jung-Woo (Gwangju Phoenix), Lee Chung-Yong (Bolton Wanderers), Ki Sung-Yong (Celtic FC), Kim Jae-Sung (Pohang Steelers), Kim Bo-Kyung (Oita Trinity) ST: Ahn Jung-Hwan (Dailan Shide), Lee Dong-Gook (Jeonbuk Motors), Park Chu-Young (AS Monaco), Yeom Ki-Hun (Suwon Bluewings), Lee Seung-Yeoul (FC Seoul) WJ Lee DR Cha YH Cho JS Lee YP Lee CY Lee SY Ki JW Kim JS Park CY Park "The Gook" A few thoughts about our side: this is by no means the best 23 we've ever fielded, but it's certainly the best 11. Assuming Gook can get his fitness back we'll have the ideal (by Korean standard ) strike partnership of him and Chu Young Park, who's been progressing at a ridiculous pace since joining Monaco. The midfield is just about perfect, Lee and Park are both Premiership stars, Ki would have been one right now if he wasn't an idiot and chose to join an SPL club (under Tony Mowbray no less, a man who has previous with screwing up creative Korean central midfielders.) Kim is a Scott Parker kind of player who never stops running and cleans up all the s*** that the other three inevitably cause while being creative. He's had offers from the Premiership in the past (including a trial offer from us a couple of years ago I recall) and I can see him moving abroad after he wraps up his military service in a year. The defense is where we're a bit shaky. At age 33 YP Lee is still about as good as he was for Spurs and is a fantastic commander of the defensive line to boot. Cho is a decent defender but JS Lee has a history of being suspect in high-pressure situations. DR Cha is a terrible footballer but he's ridiculously strong, pacy and a laugh to watch so whatever. WJ Lee has been an amazing keeper and is one of our last remaining heroes of 2002 but he's a couple years past it. I pray to God that he'll have an Indian summer this year because there's no way the manager will be able to work up the courage to drop him. Once we get to the depth portion though we're in deep s***. You take out our starting four midfielders and the rest are pretty much dross, and there are literally no strikers beyond our first choice two that I would trust to score at World Cup level (other than Ahn I guess, who'll do it three tournaments running just to spite me.) But most worrying at all is the central defense. The ones we have available are pretty average to begin with, but the s*** we'll have to turn to if somebody gets injured literally has me up at night. Overall a decent selection. Our first XI was always going to pick itself and the options we have beyond that are all pretty similar. We've still got one of the hardest-working, well-drilled sides out there but this year we have 3~4 players who can create moments of magic if necessary. If Ki Sung-Yong can reclaim some of the form he's lost at Celtic and we stay injury free, I think we have a very good shot at the knockout rounds. If either of the two Parks, Chungyong Lee, or one of our central defenders gets injured, we're basically f***ed.

I thought the Japs had a special relationship with Brazil? There's a lot of Brazilians in Japan and vice versa as well, so they get to pick up Brazilians who grew up in Japan, Brazilians in Brazil with Japanese parents/grandparents etc. As for the Koreans, it's mostly people who's grandparents moved/were forced to move there during the occupation and never got around to going back home. I wouldn't really class these players as Koreans because they're really just Japanese in every way but name. Grew up in Japan/Speak Japanese/have a Japanese passport etc. As far as I know, no "Jainichi," as we call them, has made the Japanese NT in recent memory. A couple of them are making up the spine of the North Korean team though, including Chong Tae-Se, who's pretty much the best out-and-out goalscorer in Asia at the moment. His goals vs Greece were fantastic. Him alongside Park Chu-Young might have been alright for you guys. Oh well, that boat has sailed. Every time I watch him play I want to knock some sense into his parents for sending him to a North Korean-affiliated school as a child and putting funny thoughts into his head. Ah well, I reckon he would've probably just played for Japan if he didn't play for North Korea, which would be even worse.

I thought the Japs had a special relationship with Brazil? There's a lot of Brazilians in Japan and vice versa as well, so they get to pick up Brazilians who grew up in Japan, Brazilians in Brazil with Japanese parents/grandparents etc. As for the Koreans, it's mostly people who's grandparents moved/were forced to move there during the occupation and never got around to going back home. I wouldn't really class these players as Koreans because they're really just Japanese in every way but name. Grew up in Japan/Speak Japanese/have a Japanese passport etc. As far as I know, no "Jainichi," as we call them, has made the Japanese NT in recent memory. A couple of them are making up the spine of the North Korean team though, including Chong Tae-Se, who's pretty much the best out-and-out goalscorer in Asia at the moment.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! Two major international-level f***-ups this year for the fake-Japanese c***. Why is he fake? I think he's Brazilian-born. He's a brazilian who gets to play for Japan by virtue of having a Japanese grandfather. Japan have a bit of previous with this naturalised Brazilian s***. Alex at the last World Cup is one that sticks out. Weren't Korea gonna try something similar not long ago? Mota or somebody. Motta mentioned it as a throwaway comment in a magazine interview a couple years ago. A big deal was made out of it but he moved to the J-League a couple of months later so that idea went out the window. He's back in Korea now but it hasn't really crossed anybody's mind because our forwards are better now. Realistically it's very hard for us to have naturalized foreigners in our NT because we don't have a readily available football-playing Diaspora like the Japanese do with the Brazilians and our citizenship regulations are very strict. You have to work here for five years and pass some pretty hardcore Korean language and history tests. Very few foreign K-League players even stay for that long, never mind having that kind of dedication. And that's without even getting into the whole cultural thing (we take our "100% pure Korean"-ness very seriously.) Overall I don't think it's likely to happen anytime soon. Shame really, because there are a couple of foreigners playing the K-League right now who would be fantastic for the NT.

Oh well, that didn't last long.

Well, that was shit. A miserable 90 minutes and we've now lost our second-choice CB. Good times. A lot hinges on the Spain friendly now. If we give a credible performance in that we should still be able to keep the "feel-good" atmosphere going into South Africa. If we get slaughtered, well, we're pretty much fucked.

Okay they're just dismantling us now. This is getting embarassing.

Any chance of an England-style turnaround? Nah, lads are obviously jet-lagged and they're successfully beating the shit out of any creative movement we try to bring to the match. I know the point of friendly's is to learn from your mistakes, but man... If we can't break down Belarus Greece is going to be Hell.

conceded Shocking defending.

Couldn't have asked for a better way to break their spirit Watching Japan lose is almost as fun as watching Korea win.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! Two major international-level f***-ups this year for the fake-Japanese c***. Why is he fake? I think he's Brazilian-born. He's a brazilian who gets to play for Japan by virtue of having a Japanese grandfather.

He was their record signing at the time n all. Awful keeper. Legend for Japan though. I had the pleasure of seeing him pick our goals out of their net for the better part of a decade.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! Two major international-level fuck-ups this year for the fake-Japanese cunt.

Still in the J-League. I've only seen a game and a half of him but definitely worth a look imo... That work rate of his is absolutely insane.

Belarusi defending = kick shin/grab shirt first, ask questions later. This was obviously not the best of choices for a friendly two weeks before the tournament.

Fucking Belarus making some absolutely horrific tackles out there. It's a fucking friendly for pete's sake.