Olympic Football squads for the 16 teams participating at the 2008 Olympics: Squads for the 2008 Olympic Football Tournament can be submitted till 23rd July. As the remaining squad lists are published, they will be added to the site and linked to from the list below. Group A Argentina Australia Ivory Coast Serbia Group B Japan Netherlands Nigeria USA Group C Belgium Brazil China New Zealand Group D Cameroon Honduras Italy Korea Republic Also See: Beijing 2008 [. Click to continue reading...

If there was a sense of inevitability ahead of the draw for the final round of World Cup qualifying in Asia, neither Japan coach Takeshi Okada, nor Australia coach Pim Verbeek let it show.
Both reacted casually when Japan and Australia were drawn together in Group A, along with Middle-Eastern sides Qatar and Bahrain and potential dark horses Uzbekistan. Click to continue reading...

Group: Australia, Japan, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Bahrain. Schedule: Uzbekistan (A), Qatar (H), Bahrain (A), Japan (A), Uzbekistan (H), Qatar (A), Bahrain (H), Japan (H) Other Group: Korea Republic, Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and United Arab Emirates. Australia hasn't been handed an easy draw but it also isn't the hardest group possible either. Click to continue reading...

Ji-sung Park's hope of playing in the Olympics this summer have been spoiled by a recurring knee injury. "Unfortunately, Park will not be selected for the Olympics," Korea Republic coach Park Sung-hwa said. "After discussing the matter with the Korean Football Association, we made the decision considering the fact that Park isn't . Click to continue reading...

There is nothing more predictable that our media focussing on the negative.

Yesterday the Asian Football Confederation released their restructure of the AFC Champions League. The restructure itself is overdue, the format of the current competition is poor. Allowing only the top team of each group passage to the knockout rounds results in the situation we saw last night where the group winner has been decided before the final round and no one has anything to play for except pride.

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He may have been playing in the shadow of Altidore, Adu, and Szetela for the US in the U20 World Cup, but slowly and assuredly, Dax McCarty is making a name for himself in the MLS with his current club, FC Dallas.

Coming from parents who were both talented athletes in their prime, it's really no surprise that McCarty is so physically-gifted, but what is surprising is the sport in which he chose to concentrate. Click to continue reading...

LG Electronics, South Korea's second-largest electronics maker, is promoting an aggressive premier marketing campaign from mobile phones to LCD TVs in Europe in a way to intensify its brand image. "Sports marketing seems another must-win card for LG to raise its brand recognition in European markets," observed Kim Yoo-chul in The Korean Times. In July, the company signed a three-year shirt Click to continue reading...

Afshin Ghotbi recently left his position as South Korean assistant coach to take over Iranian club Persepolis. Born in Iran, the 43 year-old left his homeland for America in 1977 and went to the 1998 World Cup with the United States and the 2002 and 2006 World Cups with South Korea. He spoke to John Duerden of goal.com (extracts): Practical problems of the 2007 Asian Cup: First of all, you have Click to continue reading...

World football body FIFA has announced that over 600,000 tickets have already been sold for the U-17 World Cup being played in South Korea during 8 August - 9 September. Local organisers are hoping to beat China's record total attendance of 735,000 for the competition which was set on its debut as an U-16 tournament in 1985. Click to continue reading...

South Korea's state-owned broadcaster, Korean Broadcasting System, has agreed a deal with the Traffic Sports Marketing and Total Sports Asia agencies for the rights to broadcast all nine of Brazil's home matches of the 2010 South American World Cup Qualifying Tournament. The matches are held over a period of three years starting with the first match on 17 October 2007. Click to continue reading...

Australia's U-19 Young Socceroos have won the Weifang Cup after recording a 1-0 win over Uzbekistan in their match to finish the tournament one point ahead of hosts China. Australia won four of their five matches winning the tournament ahead of second-placed China with Iran in third position. The only defeat for the Young Socceroos was against China who scored a late winner from the penalty spot. Click to continue reading...

Former South Korea coach Pim Verbeek's four-back defense style is likely to be maintained by the Olympic squad. On 3 August, the Korea Football Association named Park Seong-hwa to head the national football team for the 2008 Summer Olympics and he announced his plan to keep current Olympic team coach Hong Myeong-bo. The Park-Hong team will lead the Olympic team for the qualifiers for the 2008 Click to continue reading...

Iraq coach Jorvan Vieira said he will turn down an extension to his two-month contract because of chronic disorganisation in Iraqi football which he said made the job the most difficult of his career. When Vieira took over just two months before the Asian Cup tournament, the team was in disarray, with poor training facilities, players unavailable and rifts between Shi'ites and minority Sunni Click to continue reading...

Members of South Korea's returning Asian Cup squad have urged head coach Pim Verbeek to reconsider his decision to resign , saying he was the right man for the job. "There is no one who knows Korean players as well as Verbeek. The players are even saying we should try and stop him," striker Lee Chun-soo was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. "People are talking about problems with his Click to continue reading...

South Korea is looking for a new coach following the resignation of Dutchman Pim Verbeek after Saturday's Asian Cup 3rd/4th place playoff against Japan. A spokesman for the Korean Football Association told Reuters that officials were already discussing a possible successor but had not yet made a decision. Verbeek announced his resignation at a news conference in Palembang after South Korea had Click to continue reading...

Saudi Arabia has reportedly booked 15,000 tickets for its supporters to attend its Asian Cup final against Iraq in Jakarta on Sunday night. On Friday the Indonesian organising committee of the event confirmed that the Saudi team's management had booked 15,000 tickets costing Rp 50,000 each. Besides this, 10,000 more tickets priced at Rp 100,000 each were also reported to have been booked by World Click to continue reading...

South Korea's coach Pim Verbeek said his team has regrouped for Saturday's play-off against Japan for third place at the Asian Cup. "We will not give up because Korean footballers never give up. We will go for the third and fourth place match. I think it's the most terrible game there is in football, but we will go for it and we will be ready again Saturday," he told Robert Smith of AFP. Click to continue reading...

Iraq coach Jorvan Vieira must have wondered why his team bothered leaving Bangkok at all. After coming to the somewhat disconcerting realisation that his team had no accommodation booked upon their arrival in Kuala Lumpur, Vieira probably let fly with a few choice words two days later when he stepped out on to the pitch at the cavernous Bukit Jalil Stadium. Click to continue reading...

English Premier League club Reading has reportedly reached agreement with the Korean Football Association to accomodate three South Korean youth internationals, strikers Nam Tae Hee and Ji Dong Won and midfielder Kim Won Sik, at the Royals' Academy for a season. South Korea winger Seol Ki-Hyeon is a star player at Reading, which played in the Peace Cup in Seoul earlier this month and Reading Click to continue reading...

Iraq coach Jorvan Viera has been hot and bothered by the lack of hotel rooms in Kuala Lumpur. Pim Verbeek's Korea Republic have flattered to deceive. Japan came to the Asian Cup seeking revenge over Australia - got it - and will need to stay motivated for the rest of the tournament. And Saudi Arabia coach Helio Anjos claims that his team needs to overcome an inferiority complex.

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Asian Cup host Indonesia wants to see South Korea and Japan contest the final in Jakarta, believing the match-up will attract the most supporters to its 88,000 capacity Gelora Bung Karno stadium. Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) General Secretary Nugraha Besoes said he expected Korean and Japanese factory owners in Indonesia would buy tickets for their workers if the sides win their Click to continue reading...

English Premier League club Bolton Wanderers reached the final of the church-backed Peace Cup in South Korea on Saturday only to be beaten by French club Lyon. However manager Sammy Lee was pleased with his preparations during the 14 day trip to East Asia. "It has been a gruelling trip but the lads have coped well during the heat and humidity. The Koreans were most hospital able throughout our Click to continue reading...

South Korea beat Iran 4-2 on penalties after a gruelling 0-0 draw in humid conditions to reach the Asian Cup semi-finals. Kim Jung-woo scored the winning penalty to send the inexperienced Koreans through to a last-four clash against Iraq on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur. Iran captain Mehdi Mahdavikia and Rassoul Khatibi missed their spot-kicks and only Kim Do-heon failed for the Koreans. Click to continue reading...

"This is Manchester United's first visit to Korea - and I am sure we will be coming back," Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of the English Premier League club said after his Red Devils beat K-League club FC Seoul 4-0 in a friendly. "The reception we have received here has been absolutely excellent. Everything about the trip has been first class. I used to think when we went to Thailand it was almost Click to continue reading...

South Korea scraped into the Asian Cup quarter-finals with a nervous 1-0 win over gallant Indonesia in their final Group D game played before 88,000 emotional Indonesian fans at their National Stadium in Jakarta. Kim Jung-woo scored the priceless goal for Korea in the 34th minute, but they were made to sweat in a torrid second half as Indonesia threw everything into attack, leaving gaps at the Click to continue reading...