Korea Ranked Second in Number of International Football A-Matches Last Year

According to the latest March edition of FIFA Magazine, a monthly magazine published by the International Football Foundation (FIFA), the Korean national football team held a total of 22 A-matches last year, ranking second in the world after the Saudi Arabian team, which held 24 A-matches. Japan ranked third with 19 A-matches, followed by Germany (18), Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, France, Ghana and Jordan (17), and Italy, Libya, Poland and Tunisia (16).

Given that last year, 186 countries held 804 matches, or an average 8.6 matches per team, it can be said that the number of A-matches that Korea played was more than double the average. This is because the Korean team played large numbers of friendly matches as it had an overseas training session for over 40 days—to prepare for the 2006 World Cup Games in Germany—from the very beginning of last year, and because it also had the preliminary matches for the 2007 Asian Cup at the same time.

In women’s football, China ranked first with 29 A-matches, followed by the U.S. (22), Japan (17) and Canada and Mexico (16 each). The Korean national female football team played 11 A-matches last year.

yjongk@donga.com