Holding Breath for Match with England

`Pride versus pride.`

Korea and England are to hold a match at Seoguipo city’s Jeju World Cup Stadium, Jeju on the 21st, between the pride of the host country and the pride of the `original soccer`. Both teams have begun final training for the last evaluation match on the 19th, preparing for the World Cup finals.

The English national team, led by Swedish manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, concluded its 5-night and 6-day field training in Dubai, U.A.E., and arrived at Jeju International Airport at 1:10 a.m. by the chartered plane on the day. The English World Cup team that arrived in Korea on the day counted 54 individuals in total, including 24 players.

Reason for one more player in the official entry is that midfielder Kieron Dyer (22. New Castle) has hurt his right knee during the Premier League last week, and Trever Sinclair (West Ham) has been included in the waiting list.

Apart from Dyer, England is also suffering from injury of David Beckham, Robbie Fowler, Sol Campbell, and Nicky Butt. Start-up midfielder Steven Gerrard has been even excluded from the list due to injury.

“Our supreme task is to survive in the Group F. We are focusing everything on the opening match against Sweden,” said Eriksson. About Beckham’s conditions, he added, “He resumed training last week, and he’ll be getting on the ball from this week.”

Meanwhile, the Korean players, who took a 3-day rest after winning the Scottish match, also gathered at Jeju Shila Hotel at 1:30 p.m. on the day. After holding a meeting over luncheon, the players began with light exercises from 5 p.m. at Jeju World Cup Stadium.

“I believed the break would be helpful for the game. I’ll work on the players’ conditions for the English match,” said manager Guus Hiddink of the Korean national team.

buddy@donga.com