The Norwegian team failed to qualify for this year edition of the World Cup, but that doesn’t mean Norway doesn’t have a great soccer team.
Norway can point to a decent record in recent times. The Scandinavians qualified for the 1994 FIFA World Cup USA but fell in the first round by the slimmest of margins. All four teams in their group finished on the same number of points and goal difference; but Norway had scored fewer goals and packed their bags for home.
Four years later they had a great part in France 1998 defeating the powerful Brazil in what’s considered the best game they’ve ever play in the final stage of this competitions. That victory allowed them to go to the round of sixteen, but lost against a very good Italy squad.
Norway missed the Korea/Japan World Cup and this year won’t be present either in Germany. But they have lots of young players that given the continuity needed the can put together a very good team for the future.
South Korea is by far the most successful Asian team. They’ve been to more FIFA World Cup finals than any other Asia team. This will be their seventh appearance and sixth consecutive.
Asia’s most frequent visitors to FIFA World Cup finals and first appeared at the global showpiece in 1954. Prior to 2002, however, they had not managed a single win in 14 finals matches. That all changed under Dutch coach Guus Hiddink who led them to the last four victories over four European teams, were they manage to get to the semifinals leaving in the way Italy and Spain a first for any Asian team in a World Cup.
Park Ji-Sung, now at Manchester United, provides a genuine attacking threat from midfield while left-back Lee Young-Pyo is a key figure in a defense. That operates in front of experienced goalkeeper Lee Woon-Jae. There are plenty of options up front while, Ahn Jung-Hwan whose golden goal defeated Italy, Cha Du-Ri and Lee Dong-Gook the top scorer at the 2000 AFC Asian Cup.
With an impressive and experienced squad Korea will have the opportunity to repeat their performance from last year edition. In order to do that they need to prepare very good and one step of that preparation will be the friendly matches. Such as the one they will have in Oslo against Norway that will help them to correct those last minute details before the big tournament.
Sports betting for these games, is available in most books, so don’t miss your chance to bet on an exciting game such as this one and start preparing your picks for the world cup.
